If you find yourself going to the bathroom more often, but work harder to push out less urine than you used to, you might be experiencing signs of an enlarged prostate. Fortunately, it’s come at a medically advantageous time.
Enlarged prostate, or benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), is the most common prostate condition among men over 50. As a result, medical science continually researches less-invasive, low-risk methods for treating the condition. Among the most revolutionary techniques today is a procedure called prostate artery embolization (PAE).
PAE is a minimally treatment that eases BPH symptoms by cutting off the blood supply to the prostate’s enlarged tissue – but without any actual cutting. Rather, this surgery-free approach uses a catheter to block blood flow to the prostatic arteries (embolization) with microbeads, safely keeping blood away, so the enlarged tissue shrinks.
Ongoing research into the effectiveness of PAE is producing favorable results, with high long-term success rates and fewer side effects than surgery and other options. But is PAE right for you? The following information can help you decide.
How to Recognize Enlarged Prostate Symptoms
The prostate is a small gland that makes seminal fluid, a component of semen. But inadvertently, the prostate also can influence how you pass urine, because of its location: It encircles the urethra, right below the bladder.
Every man’s prostate enters a slow growth stage at around age 25, and this growth does not stop. Eventually, the tissue squeezes the urethra like a girdle, making it hard for your bladder to push out urine.
This is common: Half of all men between ages 51 and 60 have an enlarged prostate; 70% experience symptoms by age 69; and 90% have it by the time they are 85.
BPH does not raise your risk of developing prostate cancer, fortunately, but it can cause urinary problems and other health issues. Some of the most common symptoms of BPH are:
- A more frequent and/or urgent need to urinate.
- Having to get up to pee frequently during the night (nocturia).
- Difficulty starting to urinate, and/or straining to go.
- Feeling like you cannot completely empty your bladder.
- A weak, intermittent urine stream that dribbles at the end.
What to Do, and Expect, If You Have BPH Symptoms
If these symptoms trouble you for more than a few weeks, then you should call your urologist. Typically, minor cases of BPH are managed through diet and lifestyle adjustments, such as avoiding caffeine and alcohol, which your doctor can walk you through.
The next step would involve prescribed medications that aim to relax the prostate and bladder muscles. Other drugs can shrink the enlarged tissue.
When these more conservative approaches do not work, the traditional next step has entailed procedural intervention to remove the tissue. Common options involve lasers, heat energy (needle ablation), microwave therapy, or surgically cutting the prostate tissue away.
PAE Offers You an Effective Alternative
Prostate artery embolization is designed to shrink prostate tissue and prevent further growth, rather than having the tissue manually removed or by taking medications. The procedure earned FDA approval in 2018.
If you choose to undergo PAE, this is what you can expect:
- You’ll have the treatment in an outpatient setting, before which you’ll be put under light sedation (twilight sleep).
- Once you are under sedation, a radiologist makes a small puncture in an artery through your thigh or wrist, and feeds a slim flexible tube (catheter) through to your prostate, using X-ray imagery as a guide.
- The physician injects a dye into the catheter to reveal the arteries that provide blood to the enlarged tissue.
- Tiny beads are then pushed into the catheter toward those arteries, where they become lodged. The beads block blood flow to the excess tissue, causing it to shrink.
After the procedure, which generally takes about two hours, you might feel some soreness in the groin, which is temporary. You should notice improvement in your BPH symptoms within three weeks.
More than 8 in 10 Men Feel Relief with PAE
Ongoing studies into the effectiveness of PAE are encouraging wide interest, especially when combined with its non-invasive approach.
In one study, detailed in the National Library of Medicine, test subjects reported an 85% success rate in the first year after the procedure, while 82% showed successful results for up to three years. More than 76% felt symptom relief for three to 6.5 years.
PAE also comes with fewer risks and side effects than more invasive procedures. Follow-up research indicates that PAE patients are less likely than surgery patients to have ejaculation issues, according to Endovascular Today. Studies also find PAE carries a lower risk of sexual dysfunction and urinary incontinence compared with some surgeries.
And PAE is on average less expensive than surgery and even minimally invasive treatments, and most insurance plans cover it. (For context, studies estimate that men pay more than $1,500 each in individual costs for BPH treatments.)
Stubborn BPH Symptoms? Talk to Your Doctor About PAE
If you’re struggling to manage persistent BPH symptoms and medications do not improve your quality of life, it probably is time to talk to a urologist about reducing those middle-of-the-night bathroom trips.
Your urologist can determine the severity of your BPH by testing your blood and urine, your bladder function, and urine flow. From there, you can discuss the best approach for care. You could be a good candidate for PAE at Advanced Urology Institute.
You can learn more about BPH symptoms and other treatments we offer on our website. If you’re interested in more detail about PAE, download our BPH educational handout.
