The risk of having an enlarged prostate looms over men from over the age of 30. The risk doubles when you reach 50, and that is when the symptoms start showing and disrupting your lifestyle. Studies have shown that even though the symptoms of BPH start showing after 50, a majority of such cases start affecting the patient as early as 30 or even 25 years of age. So, early diagnosis of BPH is an easy solution, right? Yes and no.  While early diagnosis by studying the underlying causes of BPH may seem easy, it is only possible when patients actively go for medical checkups regularly. With early diagnosis, it is well possible to inhibit the prostate growth and control the condition before it can show disrupting symptoms. 

Early diagnosis also allows patients to get easy treatment with no requirement for surgical procedures. So, let’s delve in detail into the importance of early diagnosis of BPH, and how it can help in the treatment of this condition.

Why Is Early Diagnosis of BPH Important?
 

As with any condition, early diagnosis can help you treat the condition before it becomes complicated. For conditions like BPH that can lead to other more complicated conditions and put your lifestyle at risk, early diagnosis helps keep your health safe. To briefly summarise, early diagnosis of BPH can lower your risk of prostate cancer, prostatitis, and even UTIs and kidney stones. It may seem unconnected but BPH can be a cause behind all of these problems. How? Let’s discuss this.

Prostate Cancer: Patients with BPH that are growing rapidly are at a higher risk of developing prostate cancer and for the cancer to be in advanced stages and aggressive. Even the symptoms of BPH and prostate cancer can seem similar. However, given BPH can start showing symptoms from as early as your 30s, it’s crucial that you go through regular checkups to keep your risks in check. Early diagnosis of BPH can help you take your prostate health seriously and go through treatments to lower your risk of prostate cancer, advanced BPH, and other conditions significantly.

Prostatitis: Prostatitis is a condition that leads to pain and discomfort while urinating or just pain in your genital and pelvic region generally. BPH is a risk factor of prostatitis and in cases where the patient has been affected by BPH for a long time, the risk increases significantly. Prostatitis can also cause UTIs, which can be painful and damage your health. Early diagnosis of BPH can help you slow down the growth of your prostate and keep it in check regularly, this can also lower your risk of prostatitis and help you lead a healthy life.

Urinary Tract Infections: BPH increases your risk of UTIs, and especially at advanced ages, UTIs can be a serious health concern that can greatly hamper your health. When you have UTIs caused by BPH, it will be more difficult to get rid of, unless you treat the underlying cause, which is BPH. So, early diagnosis is crucial to keep you safe from the risk of UTIs. They can be painful and cause other health concerns like kidney stones if left unchecked. How does UTI cause kidney stones? Let’s find out.

Kidney Stones: From something as normal as an enlarged prostate, you can get very painful kidney stones from no added fault of your own. If BPH is left untreated it can cause UTIs because BPH inhibits your ability to completely empty your bladder. UTIs cause an excess of uric acid in your urine, which can leave sediments in your kidneys and cause conditions like kidney stones. Uric acid stones can be large and difficult to pass and unless your BPH is treated, the stones will have a way of always coming back. So, early diagnosis of BPH is crucial to keep your urinary system healthy.
 

How To Diagnose BPH Before Symptoms Start Showing?
 

Now that you know why it’s important to diagnose BPH as soon as possible, let’s discuss how to do it. The easy answer would be to look at the causes and symptoms of BPH and check if you have those. However, that would be a mistake because BPH symptoms don’t show up as soon as your prostate growth goes beyond normal. They take years to show up and by then the condition has already affected your body. 

So, one of the only ways to diagnose BPH early is to go for regular health checkups for men above the age of 30. Doctors will use several techniques to keep your prostate growth in check and ensure you are not developing BPH. It is important to note that prostate growth as you age is normal, however, without regular checkups, you can’t understand when the growth has become abnormal.

Doctors use techniques like physical prostate examinations, blood tests, and urine tests to check for BPH regularly. These tests can help doctors understand the condition of your prostate and help you get the necessary medical treatments for BPH to treat your symptoms. If you are curious about how BPH diagnosis works, you can check out other blogs on the MASSH website dedicated to that topic.
 

How Can Early Diagnosis Help BPH Treatment?
 

BPH treatment guidelines generally dictate that the condition can be treated with medication and even alternative medicine if it has been diagnosed early. Even lifestyle changes, following a healthy diet, and certain regulations like stopping smoking and drinking can improve your condition. Alternatively, late diagnosis or serious cases of BPH require surgical treatment that has a certain risk factor attached to them, which can hamper your sexual health for some time.

Overall, as you can imagine, early diagnosis of any condition can help you treat it easier and get over your symptoms quickly. With an early diagnosis of BPH, you can use supplements and a healthy diet to keep your condition in check. Even if you need medication, doctors can control your dosage to ensure you don’t have to go through any medication side effects.

However, you should note that living with BPH is not the best choice for your health. So, once you get diagnosed with BPH you should then take your doctor’s recommendation and follow their instructions to keep your condition in check.

Conclusion

BPH is a condition that can affect almost any man above the age of 50. While it doesn’t cause much concern health-wise, it can take away your quality of life and can even be an underlying cause for other health conditions. So, if you are passionate about healthy living, and would like to enjoy life, it’s important for you to take your health seriously. 

You can do that by going for regular health checkups to know about your health and actively work towards keeping yourself healthy. And to get the best diagnosis and quick treatment for your prostate problems, visit MASSH. We specialise in prostate care and can help you treat your conditions safely and quickly.