1. Understanding the Importance of Prostate Health Middle aged men
Time can be on your side…….
By: Dominique DiVece

2. What is your Prostate Gland?
Your prostate is a small gland that is a big as a walnut.
Primary function is to produce fluid that nourishes and transports semen for ejaculation.
Your prostate grows a lot during puberty and stays around the same size until age 40 when it begins to slowly grow again and doesn’t stop!
Most men are not bothered by their growing prostate however, some are.

3. Warning Sign That there is a Problem
Frequent urge to urinate
Blood in urine or semen
Painful or burning urination
Difficulty urinating
Difficulty having an erection

4. Continued warning signs
Painful ejaculation
Frequent pain or stiffness in lower back
Inability to urinate
Dribbling of the urine

5. Seek Medical Attention
Consulting with your doctor may be embarrassing but it can save your life !
If symptoms arise meet with your doctor ASAP
Prostate check around 50 years old

6. What to expect…. Digital rectal Exam (DRE) Blood Test (PSA) painless
Quick
Checks the surface of the prostate
Blood Test (PSA)
more effective
Finds cancer the DRE may not detect

7. Four Major Prostate Diseases
Acute Prostatitis
Chronic Prostatitis
Benign prostatic hyperplasia
Prostate Cancer

8. Acute Prostatitis The inflammation of the prostate cause by infection
Symptoms:
Chills
Fever
Pain in lower back
Pain between legs
Painful urination

9. How to cure Acute Prostatitis
The doctor will prescribe you antibiotics to help cure your infection Doctor may also suggest that you drink a lot of fluids

10. Chronic Prostatitis Infection continues to return
Most common Prostatitis
Symptoms may be milder but last longer
Can be hard to treat
Anitbiotics may or may not work depending on what causes the infection
Warm baths may help with pain
Clears up its self

11. Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) Enlarged Prostate
Starts in men at age 30 however symtoms don’t show until around age 50
Prostate gland grows in size and presses on the urethra
Which can cause urine to back up in the bladder

12. Symptoms of BHP Blood in the urine
Feeling as through bladder has not fully emptied after urination
Frequent urination especially at night
Decrease in force of urine steam
Pushing or straining to begin urine flow
Recurrent, sudden, or urgent need to urinate.

13. Is there a cure for BPH
There is no cure for BPH once prostate growth has started it normally continues unless medical therapy is started

14. Prostate Cancer
One of the most common types of cancer among American men!

15. What is prostate Cancer??
A tumor that consist of cells from the prostate gland
Grows slowly confined to the gland for years
However the spread of it is possible if detection is not found early

16. Prostate Cancer

17. What causes it and what are the risk factors?
There is no specific cause of prostate cancer
Risk factors include:
- advancing age
-genetics
-hormonal influences
- environmental factors
-toxins
-chemicals
-industrial products

18. Symptoms of Prostate Cancer
Early stages of Cancer
Not apparent
Found in blood test
Tumor detected through DRE
Urine flow diminishes
Burning with urination
Blood in urine
Painful obstruction of the bladder
Later stages of Cancer

19. How is cancer Diagnosed
If blood test and the rectal exam are both abnormal a biopsy of the prostate would be taken
They take samples of two different types of tissue on the prostate.
Pathologist then grade each tissue on a scale of 1-5 Called Gleason score

20. Intermediate aggressiveness
Scale Is based on microscopic characteristics of the cancerous cells and reflects how aggressive the tumor is
Gleason Scores
2-4 Low
Slow Growing
5-6 Intermediate
Intermediate aggressiveness
7-10 High
Rapidly growing tumor

21. Treatment Options Watchful waiting radical prostatectomy
The treatment options depends on your age, health status and whether or not the tumor has spread!
Watchful waiting
radical prostatectomy
external (beam) radiation therapy
internal radiation therapy
Hormone therapy

22. Watchful Waiting
If you choose the watchful waiting option you are basically doing just that… you are monitoring your cancer and waiting for the tumor to get bigger.
If the tumor gets bigger than you can decide what action to take from there

23. Risk Factors and Statistics
35% of men have some accidental leakage of urine during heavy lifting coughing or laughing.
if your under 50 your chances of erectile dysfunction are slimmer then if your 70 and over.
Incontinence (loss of bladder control)
Impotence (loss of the ability to get or maintain an erection)
However each of these of problems improves with time

24. radical prostatectomy
This option is for those who are young and in good health
The most certain treatment if all the cancer is removed during surgery than you are cured.
Doctor is able to see easily if cancer has spread due to near by lymph nodes that are taken out during surgery.

25. external (beam) radiation therapy
given to patient through a machine that resembles an x-ray machine
Takes about 10 minutes a day for 5 days a week for 6-8 weeks
no anesthesia
Side effects of this treatment are mild
Low occurrence of urinary side effects
2% of men that take part in this procedure experience severe incontinence

26. Internal Radiation Therapy
must go under anathema
Small rice like radioactive seeds are implanted into the prostate
Inserted in the skin between the scrotum and the anus
Test are taken before procedure that tell the doctors exactly where to implant the radioactive seeds
Seeds give of levels of radiation
Men are advised to stay away from small children and pregnant women depending on the level of radiation given of

27. Hormone Therapy Reduce androgens in the body
Androgens in the testes stimulate cancer to grow
Lower levels make the tumor shrink
Many types of hormone therapy if surgery and radiation are not possible.

28. To Get More Information about Prostate Health