Prostate Health › Services

Understanding what your prostate is and what is does is important to maintaining good prostate health.  More than 30 million men suffer from prostate conditions that negatively affect their everyday life.

Your prostate is a small gland, about the size of a walnut, that surrounds your urethra, a tube that takes urine from the bladder to the penis.  This gland grows a great deal during puberty and slowly grows again around age 40.  In many men, the gland does not stop growing at age 40.  About half of all men will develop one of three prostate diseases:  enlarged prostate, prostate cancer, or prostatitis. 

More than 50% of men over the age of 60 have symptoms of an enlarged prostate, also known as Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH).  BPH is a non-cancerous condition that is associated with aging.  Symptoms include frequent urination, weak urine flow, and interrupted sleep.

Prostate cancer affects more than 230,000 men each year.  It is most often discovered by PSA (prostate specific antigen) screening and less commonly by physical examination or by symptoms.

Prostatitis is an inflammation of the prostate gland.  The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases has defined four categories of prostatitis:  acute prostatitis, chronic bacterial prostatitis, chronic pelvic syndrome and asymptomatic inflammatory prostatitis.