If you're a man in your sixties or seventies then there's a better than even chance that you will be suffering from an enlarged prostate gland and will be experiencing a range of common symptoms including a difficulty in urinating, a need to urinate frequently and with some urgency and a dribbling of urine even after you've visited the bathroom. But should you be worried by your enlarged prostate gland?
An enlarged prostate gland is an extremely common condition that will affect most men later in life and is caused by cell growth within the inner core of the prostate at the point at which it encircles the urethra. This causes a constriction on the urethra and interferes with the normal flow of urine.
This cell growth is normally very slow, is benign (non-cancerous) and is confined to the inner area of the prostate. As a result, an enlarged prostate gland in itself is really nothing to worry about and many men will find that the symptoms caused by the enlarged prostate are sufficiently minor that they really don't bother them too much at all.
Except in cases of severe enlargement, an enlarged prostate gland is nothing to worry about. However, the symptoms which are typical of an enlarged prostate gland, and which are often attributed to a swollen prostate, may also indicate the presence of other or additional problems, some of which you should certainly be worried about.
Unfortunately, because most men will suffer from an enlarged prostate, particularly in their sixties and seventies, many men don't worry when the symptoms appear and certainly wouldn't dream of bothering their doctor with the problem. This is a mistake.
Yes, an enlarged prostate gland is generally speaking nothing to worry about but, when the symptoms start to appear you should talk to your doctor and make sure that an enlarged prostate gland is indeed the cause of your symptoms.
