Benign prostate enlargement (BPE), also known as benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), is a condition that affects older men and anyone with a prostate.
It’s particularly common in men and anyone with a prostate over 50 years of age and isn’t usually a serious threat to health.
The symptoms of benign prostate enlargement are caused by the enlarged prostate placing pressure on the bladder and urethra (which carries urine from the bladder to the penis).
This can affect urination in a number of ways. For example, it can:
make it difficult for you to start urinating
weaken the flow of urine or cause ‘stopping and starting’
cause you to strain to pass urine
cause you to need to urinate frequently
cause you to wake up frequently during the night to urinate
cause a sudden urge to urinate, which can result in urinary incontinence if you can’t find a toilet quickly enough
cause you to not be able to empty your bladder fully
cause blood in the urine (haematuria)
In the later stages, benign prostate enlargement can cause urine retention and other complications such as bladder stones, bladder infections and kidney damage.
You’ll be asked to complete a questionnaire to assess your symptoms. Each question has 5 possible answers that carry a score, and your overall score is used to assess the severity of your symptoms.
The checklist includes the following questions.
Over the past month, how often:
have you had the sensation of not completely emptying your bladder after urinating?
have you had to urinate again less than 2 hours after finishing urinating?
have you found that you stopped and started again when urinating?
have you found it difficult to postpone urination?
have you had a weak stream of urine?
have you had to push or strain to begin urinating during the course of one night?
have you had to get up during the night to urinate?
After your GP has assessed the severity your symptoms, they’ll aim to rule out other conditions with similar symptoms using certain tests.