Prostatic hyperplasia, also known as prostate enlargement, is a common chronic disease among elderly men and one of the common diseases in urology. The prostate begins to show two trends around the age of 45 in males: part tends to shrink, while another part tends to proliferate, gradually increasing the size of the gland and forming prostatic hyperplasia.
The symptoms of prostatic hyperplasia are mainly manifested in two groups of symptoms: one is bladder irritation symptoms; the other is obstructive symptoms caused by the blockage of the urethra due to hyperplastic prostate.
1. Bladder Irritation Symptoms: Frequent urination, urgency, increased nocturia, and urge incontinence. Frequent urination is an early signal of prostatic hyperplasia, especially the increase in nocturnal urination which has clinical significance. Generally speaking, the number of nocturnal urinations often parallels the degree of prostatic hyperplasia. Elderly people who originally did not need to get up at night to urinate but now have to go once or twice at night usually reflect the onset of early obstruction, and when it develops from twice a night to four or five times or even more, it indicates the progression and worsening of the disease.
2. Urinary Obstruction Symptoms: Mainly due to the blockage of the urethra caused by prostatic hyperplasia.
(1) Weak urination, thin urine stream, and dribbling: Due to the blockage caused by the hyperplastic prostate, patients have to use more force to overcome resistance during urination, making urination strenuous; the hyperplastic prostate flattens the urethra, causing the urine stream to become thinner; as the condition progresses, there may also be interruptions in urination and post-urination dribbling.
(2) Hematuria: Blood in the urine is called hematuria. Under normal circumstances, there are no red blood cells in the urine. Medically, if the patient's urine is centrifuged and sedimented, and then examined under a microscope, if there are more than 5 red blood cells in each high-power field of view, it is called hematuria.
(3) Urinary retention: In late-stage patients with severe prostatic hyperplasia, severe obstruction can lead to acute urinary retention due to cold exposure, alcohol consumption, prolonged holding of urine, or infection, preventing urine from being expelled.
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