Diagnosis/Treatment Prostate Ailments Conventional Treatments

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Situated right under the bladder, wrapped around the urethra, the prostate gland's primary job is to add special fluid to the sperm before it shoots out the penis during ejaculation. Sperm is produced in the testicles. From the testicles it moves up into the epididymis, where it matures, then into the two small, muscular tubes called the vas deferens, which coil up and around the bladder, to the seminal vesicles. Finally, the sperm moves into the prostate -- its last stop before being shot out of the body by the contractions of muscles in the testes, epididymis, vas deferens, seminal vesicles, prostate gland, and the base of the penis.

A Look at the Prostate

One of the prostate's main duties is to create the seminal fluid which mixes with and carries sperm out of the penis upon ejaculation. The prostate also helps to pump the semen and sperm with sufficient power out of a man's body on its way to fertilizing a woman's egg. This means that the prostate functions as both a gland and as a muscle.

The prostate is also the nerve and emotional center of a man's sex life and sexuality. It is the feeling center for sexual pleasures, disappointments, stresses, feelings of inadequacy, immorality, hates, and dislikes. Unreleased emotions of this nature, stored in the prostate, are an important source of prostate problems.

What Goes Wrong

Three main types of problems -- infection, enlargement, and cancer -- can afflict the prostate. Prostate infections, called prostatitis, are fairly common in men from the teen years on. These infections can be brief or long-lasting, mild or severe, easy or difficult to treat. Symptoms of prostatitis can include frequent and/or painful urination, other urinary difficulties, or pain during sex.

Prostate enlargement, called benign prostatic hyperplaisia, or BPH for short, is an unwanted but non-cancerous enlargement of the prostate. Although men in their twenties can suffer from BPH, it usually surfaces later in life. It's estimated that half of all men have BPH by the age of 60, and 90% will suffer from it by age 85. If the prostate enlarges outward, a man probably won't know he has BPH (unless it grows upward and pushes into the bladder). But if it swells inward, squeezing the urethra which passes through the center of the gland, he will know there's a problem. With the prostate squeezing down on the urinary tube, a man can suffer from hesitancy in urinating, straining to start the stream, a weak urinary stream, starting and stopping of the urine, dribbling of urine before and after urinating, frequent urination, getting up several times at night to urinate, or urgency of urination (a feeling that he has to go right now). He may also suffer from incomplete urination, which means that he can't completely empty his bladder, and possibly incontinence as well.

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