Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia

Prostate gland is an important gland in the male reproductive tract. Its secretions contribute to the content of the semen. The exact effect of these secretions is not clearly understood.

The gland is anatomically divided into 3 zones. They are,

·         Periurthral transitional zone

·         Central Zone

·         Peripheral zone

The transitional zone surrounds the urethra. The peripheral zone and the central zone are best described as ‘egg in the egg cup’ where egg being the central zone. The transitional zone is the part that hypertrophies and gives rise to benign prostatic hyperplasia. The peripheral zone is the part from which most prostatic carcinoma arises.

Benign prostatic hyperplasia occurs in men more than fifty years of age. They have found out that 50% of men more than 60 years of age are having this condition. It is also the main cause of bladder outflow obstruction is men aged more than 70 years. 

With aging the testosterone levels gradually declines. Men also have some amount of estrogens in their body. These estrogens are secreted from the adrenal cortex. Even though the testosterone levels declines, the estrogen levels continue stay at the same level. Scientists think that this imbalance between testosterone and estrogen hormone levels is the reason behind the hyperplasia of the prostate. The high estrogen levels compared to testosterone  levels in the body cause the prostate glandular and stromal tissues to increase in number. 

Benign prostatic hyperplasia changes the urinary tract in several ways. 

·         It lengthens the urethra. Some times the urethra can be elongated to twice the length of its normal length.

·         The hyperplastic prostate gives rise to bladder outflow obstruction (BOO). As a result the bladder has to contract against a high resistant. This causes the bladder musculature to hypertrophy. The blood flow of the bladder also increases and the resultant veins in the base of the bladder are apt cause haematuria.