serious post- how many have Enlarged Prostates ?

Find a woman at least 6 feet tall so that her mouth can open big enough to give toothless head.

 

What I don't understand is why they can't invent some sort of stent-like device to keep the flow open as it passes through the prostate. To much $ in Proscar, Avodart, etc.?

 

I know everyone's seen the "do you have low T?" ads on TV but taking testosterone is definitely a bad idea if your prostate is enlarged.

If you have prostate cancer (many men do and don't even know it), testosterone will actually make it grow faster. That's why PC is treated with hormone therapy to slow it down. If your prostate is enlarged you could very well have cancer but it's generally so slow growing it's not worth treating and it'll never kill you.

BTW I'm 54 and mine is enlarged and my PSA is around 1 so it's not actionable yet but needs monitoring. My father died at 70 from PC back in 2003.

 

My dad has prostate cancer. His oncologist said that testosterone is "fuel" that feeds prostate cancer. He described it as "pouring gasoline on a fire."

 

Yup. They give you female hormones to counteract the testosterone. Another option is castration but almost no one opts for that for some reason. (!)

 

Always wondered the same - without going to my 'Gray's Anatomy', maybe muscular spasms of procreation too strong?

 

Surely such an obvious solution would have been tried already. Maybe infection risk?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostatic_stent

Cure worse than the disease? - but fitted in 15 minutes and I would have thought better than having to get up 2 or 3 times or more a night with resultant disturbed sleep effects.

 

From the article (and I have heard this elsewhere too):

"Not yet approved in the USA but available in Europe and several other countries are the nickel-titanium stents. These stents place themselves between temporary and permanent stents since they can remain in place for several years and still easily be removed. The reason for this feature is that nickel-titanium becomes super-soft when cooled with cold water."

These may be the best choice. Maybe fly to Europe and have it done there.

With the kind of permanent stents used in the U.S., major surgery is required to remove it later if it blocks up.

 

You have to be careful bypassing your home country's accepted medical practice. You go to Europe for the stent, go back to the US and need some kind of cancer treatment. Now there's this foreign appliance in your body that no one in the US knows how to deal with.