There are three main conditions that can affect the prostate gland in men. These include prostatitis, prostate gland enlargement and prostate cancer. The prostate is a male gland that creates seminal fluid that allows sperm to move more readily inside the vagina toward the uterus of a woman for conception. The most serious malady of the gland is prostate cancer.
Cancer
The Mayo Clinic reports that there may be no initial symptoms of prostate cancer when it first develops. It may take a progression of the disease to produce any symptoms. While urinary symptoms may occur in men who have prostate cancer, those symptoms also occur in association with other, less serious conditions. As symptoms of prostate cancer, these include a reduced amount of pressure with which you pass urine, interruptions during urination and difficulties urinating. The cancer also may produce such symptoms as urine that contains blood or semen that contains blood. If the cancer spreads to pelvic lymph nodes, symptoms may include pelvis discomfort and leg swelling. Prostate cancer in the advanced stages may induce symptoms such as spinal compression, fractures of your bones and pain in the bones that continues.
Gland Enlargement
BPH, or benign prostate hyperplasia or prostatic hypertrophy, is prostate glandular enlargement. It develops relatively often, the Mayo Clinic states, as men age. It can be treated but may produce a number of symptoms. Some of these types of symptoms may include impairment of the function of your kidneys, a urine stream that is weak, creation of bladder stones, urination initiation problems, UTI or urinary tract infections, urine dribbling, urgent or frequent urination need, hematuria or urine that contains blood and nocturia or more trips to the bathroom at night. Others include straining to urinate and being unable to empty the bladder completely.
Prostatitis
Prostatitis actually has several variations from bacteriological to less-understood types. The National Institute of Health has four categories of the disease: acute bacterial prostatitis, chronic bacterial prostatitis, chronic prostatitis and chronic pelvic pain, and asymptomatic inflammatory prostatitis. Prostatitis is a disease of the prostate that may cause such symptoms as dysuria or a sensation of burning when urinating, hesitant urination or urination difficulties, groin pain, lower back pain, abdominal pain, ejaculations that are painful, discomfort or pain in the testicles or penis, and pain in the perineum, the portion of your body that spans between the rectum and penis. Acute bacterial prostatitis may create such symptoms of infection as vomiting, nausea, chills and a high fever. Chronic bacterial prostatitis symptoms include UTIs that are frequent. There are no symptoms with the asymptomatic variety of prostatitis.
