As you age, your body changes, and certain bodily processes and functions suffer due to that. In men, the prostate gland grows throughout your life and as you age. It starts forming scar-like tissues, which increase the size of the prostate. This hampers your ability to urinate and empty your bladder, the condition as you would know is known as BPH.

Men over the age of 50 are already at a high risk of having BPH, and the risk only increases as you age. Even if you have a healthy prostate, other conditions that can affect you with age, can increase your risk even further. So, let’s take a look at BPH in older men, how it affects them, the challenges they face, and the treatment options they can avail of to treat their condition.

How BPH Affects Older Men?

There are several ways BPH affects older men more than people younger in age. Let’s review the various ways this condition is worse for older men and how it can be treated to relieve their problems.

Higher & More Risk Factors: People over the age of 50 are already at an almost 50% risk of getting BPH. The risk further increases as you age, not only because of your prostate growth but also because of other health conditions like diabetes. Similarly, heart diseases, circulatory problems in your body, and even erectile dysfunction can increase the chances of you getting BPH. All these factors together make it quite difficult to escape BPH when you start reaching an advanced age.

Hormonal Imbalances: As you age, men also go through their own type of menopause known as andropause. This causes certain hormonal changes in the body and a rapid decline of testosterone levels in your body. This decline increases your chances of getting affected by conditions like BPH. And the worst part is that you can’t control these changes or when it happens.

Severe Symptoms : By the age of 80, a majority of people who have BPH require medical treatment to deal with their symptoms. This means their symptoms become serious enough to require active medical treatment. The symptoms that start deteriorating with age are mainly linked with urination and can even range from seeing blood in your urine and pain while urinating if you don’t get the right treatment.

Higher Risk Of Contracting-Related Conditions: When you have BPH at an advanced age, the inability to completely empty your bladder can lead to other health problems as well. For starters, the residual urine in your bladder can get infected and lead to bladder infections. Similarly, it can also lead to urinary tract infections if the condition is left untreated. UTIs can give rise to other conditions like kidney stones. Plus, at advanced ages, your body’s ability to fight off infections is compromised, which can make fighting these infections difficult and take a significant toll on your health.

Treatment Options For Older Men With BPH

The treatment options for BPH for older men can also become restricted due to two factors mainly

• Due to other conditions in your body, your doctors may not be able to prescribe the best medications to treat your symptoms swiftly.
• Due to the older age, your body becomes more prone to the side effects of BPH treatment medication, which can affect your health otherwise.

So, while there is no straight line to BPH treatment in older adults, doctors will often have to resort to surgical treatments to treat BPH symptoms in patients of advanced age. While it may seem dangerous, today, minimally invasive surgeries are very safe, especially for people of advanced age. These procedures have an easy and quick recovery and don’t take a toll on your health. With the proper pre and post-operative care, you can easily recover from these procedures without any problem.

Conclusion

With advanced age, your body slowly loses its ability to fight off problems and respond to treatment quickly. So, to keep yourself healthy, it is of utmost importance that you maintain a healthy lifestyle and diet. And on top of that, make sure you visit your doctor regularly to keep a check on your prostate. If you find this content helpful, make sure you visit the MASSH website or visit us directly at our premises.

We offer specialized care for BPH patients of advanced age and help them treat their condition even at advanced stages. Our curated treatment plans matched with our specialized minimally invasive surgical procedures, help our patients recover from BPH quickly and treat their symptoms holistically.