Prostate

The prostate is the male prostate gland and is located in front of the bladder. With every urination, the urine runs from the bladder through the prostate into the urethra. It weighs about 15g in a healthy young man.

Prostate screening

Your wife goes to the gynecologist once a year – do you go to the urologist regularly?

With increasing age, the prostate enlarges, which can lead to a weakening of the urinary stream, an increased urge to urinate during the day, an urge to urinate at night and also residual urine. Drugs can be used to try to reduce these symptoms, but in some cases an operation on the prostate is necessary, even if the changes are benign. In most cases, this can be done through the urethra, whereby the prostate is removed from the inside. Numerous new, alternative surgical methods (laser, microwave, cryotherapy) have been tested in recent years, but the golden standard is still the scraping of the prostate via the urethra (transurethral prostate surgery, so-called TUR-P). Since there are always innovations in this sector, it is currently not possible to estimate which of the new forms of therapy will most likely prevail.

These include inflammation of the prostate (prostatitis), benign enlargement of the prostate (benign prostatic hyperplasia, BPH), but also prostate cancer (prostate carcinoma). Early detection of prostate diseases is particularly important in order to be able to achieve a cure. The prostate check-up for men should therefore be carried out on every man over the age of 45. If there is already a malignant prostate disease in the family or close relatives (grandfather, father, brother, uncle), you should have an examination once a year from the age of 40.

During the examination, in addition to the anamnesis and physical examination, an ultrasound of the kidneys, bladder and prostate and a check of the urinary findings are carried out. However, the focus is on the non-painful examination of the prostate via the anus (rectal examination) and a blood test to determine the PSA value (prostate-specific antigen). The combination of these findings provides important information to assess whether the prostate may have any suspicious changes. If the findings are unremarkable, a check-up should be carried out once a year. Thanks to the good cooperation with a nearby laboratory, I can carry out all examinations in the surgery, including taking blood.

Prostate cancer

Along with lung cancer, prostate cancer is the most common malignant disease in men, and in some countries it is already the leading cause of death in men. The risk of developing prostate cancer (prostate carcinoma) increases with age. As with most cancers, it is not clear why men get prostate cancer, but diet in industrialized countries is likely to be an important factor. In Asia, prostate cancer is much rarer than in Germany, but Asians who move to America then develop the same risk of developing prostate cancer as Americans. High-fiber, low-fat diets are probably an important part of preventing prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is a slow-growing disease, so symptoms usually only appear when the disease is already advanced. The early detection of prostate cancer is therefore particularly important.

If prostate cancer is detected, there are various drug, radiotherapeutic or surgical forms of therapy, but each therapy has certain advantages and disadvantages that need to be discussed on a case-by-case basis. Therapy is not absolutely necessary in every case. If the disease is limited to the prostate, the prostate can be removed either through an abdominal incision or through the perineum.

---

---