More than 80 percent of men over the age of 50 wake up at least once per night to urinate.(1) If youʼre no stranger to late-night nature calls, then you may be suffering from an enlarged prostate. Letʼs talk about the causes and symptoms of an enlarged prostate and how you can find the prostate relief you need to get a better nightʼs sleep.
What Is an Enlarged Prostate?
The prostate is a small, walnut-shaped organ that sits right below the bladder and surrounds the urethra. As part of the male reproductive system, the prostate has an important job. It produces prostatic fluid that is released during ejaculation and helps protect your sperm.
As you age, your prostate naturally starts to grow in size. This typically begins to occur between the ages of 40-50 and is a normal part of the aging process.
But if the prostate grows too large, it can constrict the urethra and block the flow of urine from the bladder, a condition known as benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).
How an Enlarged Prostate Keeps You Up at Night
Many men may feel embarrassed when they start to experience the symptoms of an enlarged prostate, but itʼs a common condition. In fact, the majority of men in their 60s, 70s, and 80s have an enlarged prostate.(2) How severe are your enlarged prostate symptoms? Get your Prostate Symptom Score in two minutes.
Although having an enlarged prostate is common, the urinary symptoms that accompany it may keep you and your partner up at night. These include:
- A frequent need to urinate, both day and night
- An urgent feeling of needing to urinate
- A sense that you cannot completely empty your bladder
- Weak or slow urinary stream
- Difficulty or delay in starting urination
- A urinary stream that stops and starts
As you can imagine, the frequent and urgent need to urinate leads to sleep disruptions throughout the night. You may find yourself getting up multiple times just to pee.
Getting up in the middle of the night repeatedly to use the bathroom doesnʼt just keep you from getting a good nightʼs rest; it can also disrupt your partnerʼs sleep quality. Although only 8 percent of men reported bothering their partner when they wake up to pee at night, 64 percent of women who were impacted by their partnerʼs enlarged prostate say it has disrupted their sleep. (1)
It may seem like a minor inconvenience, but all those hours of missed sleep can add up and impact your health and your partnerʼs. In the short term, poor sleep quality interferes with your memory, your decision-making, your problem-solving, and your ability to control your emotions.3 In the long term, it can increase your risk for chronic diseases like diabetes and depression.
Finding Relief
So how can you find relief from your BPH symptoms? Depending on how severe your symptoms are, there are multiple options for treating an enlarged prostate. But not all treatments are created equal. Letʼs take a look at the pros and cons of some common treatment options.
Medication
Your doctor may prescribe medications to relieve some of the symptoms associated with an enlarged prostate. This is a popular choice—more than 60 percent of men diagnosed with an enlarged prostate are on medication to treat their symptoms.(5)
Unfortunately, no medication can cure an enlarged prostate, and patients must continue taking them to relieve their symptoms. Medications may also cause symptoms like dizziness, fatigue, and sexual dysfunction.(6)
Surgery
If your symptoms are moderate to severe, transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) surgery is another treatment option. TURP surgery involves cutting away part of the prostate tissue to unblock the flow of urine through the urethra. Surgery is an effective albeit invasive treatment for an enlarged prostate, but symptom relief may take some time.
TURP surgery has traditionally been considered the most effective long-term treatment for an enlarged prostate. Patients will require a catheter that is inserted into their bladder for several days after surgery and may experience bleeding, infection, erectile dysfunction, and urinary incontinence.6 And with surgery comes the risk of long-term side effects like retrograde ejaculation or leaking urine.(6)
Minimally-Invasive Procedures
Minimally invasive procedures are now considered to be earlier treatment options that can get men off BPH medications and avoid major surgery. The UroLift® System, for example, does not require ongoing medication, heating, cutting or removal of prostate tissue. It also offers a quick return to normal activity7 and has the lowest catheter rate of the leading BPH procedures.8 The UroLift System is the only BPH procedure shown to not cause new and lasting sexual dysfunction. (*6, 9-11)
*No instances of new, sustained erectile or ejaculatory dysfunction
References:
1. Based on a survey of 2,000 U.S. men and women conducted by NeoTract in 2017
2. Berry, et al., J Urol 1984
3. https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health-topics/sleep-deprivation-anddeficiency
4. https://www.cdc.gov/sleep/about_sleep/chronic_disease.html
5. NeoTract U.S. Market Model estimates for 2018 based on IQVIA Health
Drug and Procedure data
6l. AUA BPH Guidelines 2003, 2010
7. Sonksen, Eur Urol 2015
8. Shore, Can J Urol 2014
9. Roehrborn, J Urology 2013
10. Naspro, Eur Urol 2009
11. Montorsi, J Urol 2008
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