Prostate Enlargement/BPH Health Center

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If symptoms get worse or become bothersome, or if you develop complications, you should consider medicine or surgery.

Enlarged Prostate: Should I Take Medicine?

Enlarged Prostate: Should I Have Surgery?

Treatment if the condition gets worse

If any of the following occur, you will probably need surgery for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH):

• You cannot urinate. About half of men who cannot urinate need catheterization. Half of these men will be able to urinate again after catheterization. Those who do not improve may need surgery.
• Your BPH is causing repeated urinary tract infections, bladder stones, or bladder damage.
• You have blood in your urine that is not getting better and is causing other problems such as clots that make it hard to urinate.
• You have kidney damage.

Enlarged Prostate: Should I Have Surgery?

What To Think About

Unless surgery is required because of a complication, choosing a treatment is largely up to you and your doctor. If complications arise, surgery may be needed.

The extent to which treatment improves your symptoms depends partly on how bad your symptoms are and how much you are bothered by them. If you are not bothered by your symptoms before treatment, you are less likely to notice much improvement after treatment.

Surgery offers the best chance for improving the symptoms but also has the risk of causing other problems. For more information, see the Surgery section of this topic.