How to Know if You Have an Enlarged Prostate

The older you get, the more you think about prostate health. In fact, even if your prostate never poses a threat to your overall well-being, there’s a good chance you’ll have to deal with prostate changes through the years. By the time men reach their 80s, about 80% of them have an enlarged prostate. 

Fortunately, our providers at Vascular & Interventional Associates specialize in addressing benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), the condition that causes an enlarged prostate. We treat BPH, helping men throughout northern Kentucky and Cincinnati, Ohio, get rid of the unwelcome urinary symptoms that can come with an enlarged prostate.

To help you determine if it’s time to schedule an appointment with our team, it’s useful to know the key symptoms of BPH. 

BPH 101

Your prostate continues growing through the years. Some men never experience issues from this gradual enlargement, but many do. Specifically, as your prostate grows and you develop BPH, it can interfere with other bodily processes.

Your prostate surrounds your urethra, which is the tube that carries urine out of your bladder. As the prostate gets bigger, it can put pressure on that tube, causing urinary problems. If you’ve noticed some unwelcome changes when you urinate, it could be BPH.

Signs of an enlarged prostate

Your enlarged prostate may cause:

• The need to urinate more frequently, especially at night
• A more urgent need to urinate
• Trouble starting and stopping your urine stream
• A weak urine stream
• Difficulty fully emptying your bladder
• Urinary tract infections (UTIs)

With an enlarged prostate, something you once saw as simple — urinating — can become a more prominent and even more challenging part of your life. 

Here’s the good news: You’re not stuck with those symptoms.

Treating BPH

Our team at Vascular and Interventional Associates starts by diagnosing your BPH. With specific tests, we can determine the size of your prostate, which lets us tailor your treatment. If you’re in the early stages of BPH, we can usually shrink your prostate with medication. 

At a certain point, though, your prostate may grow to a size that requires more involved treatment. Fortunately, we can address moderate to severe BPH with a minimally invasive procedure. 

We use prostate artery embolization (PAE) to limit the amount of blood that flows to your prostate, causing it to shrink. With PAE, you can avoid more invasive procedures and still get relief from your enlarged prostate symptoms. 

If you’ve noticed any urinary symptoms and think you might be living with an enlarged prostate, don’t wait to call our office in Crestview Hills, Kentucky, or request an appointment online today.