It is crucial to men’s health to understand the difference in symptoms between an enlarged prostate and prostate cancer. Knowing these differences can help patients determine which treatments they need to follow. While both of these conditions affect the prostate gland below a man’s bladder, Happy Urology can show you how to tell them apart so you can be treated properly. 

Both benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), or enlarged prostate, and prostate cancer cause the gland to become swollen. Both are also common among men.

How to Tell if Your Prostate Is Enlarged?

BPH and prostate have similar symptoms, making it hard to tell the two apart at times. For whatever reason, the prostate getting larger squeezes the urethra and can cause enough pressure to prevent urine from going through the urethra and out the body. 

Symptoms of enlarged prostate and prostate cancer:

• Urgent need to urinate
• Feeling the urge to urinate multiple times throughout the day and night
• Trouble starting to urinate or having to push to release the urine
• Dribbling urine system (weak system)
• Urine flow isn’t consistent (starts and stops)
• Feeling like the bladder is never completely empty 

If you are experiencing any of these symptoms, talk to our South Florida Urology office about scheduling an appointment soon. Signs of prostate cancer often don’t show until the cancer has grown large enough to put that pressure on the urethra. Don’t wait to get the answers you need to take care of yourself. Below we have listed some additional symptoms of prostate cancer:

• painful/burning urination
• Blood in the urine
• Trouble getting an erection 
• Painful ejaculation
• Less fluid when you ejaculate
• Blood in semen

BPH and Prostate Cancer Treatment

There are different levels of treatments for both. For mild to moderate BHP symptoms, doctors might prescribe one of the following:

• Alpha-blockers relax the muscles in both the bladder and the prostate to help the urine pass through more easily.
• 5-alpha reductase inhibitors intended to shrink the prostate. 

For more severe BPH symptoms, doctors use surgery to treat:

• Transurethral resection of the prostate removes the inner part of the prostate. 
• Transurethral incision of the prostate makes smaller cuts to allow the urine to pass through.
• Transurethral needle ablation uses radio waves to burn off extra tissue in the prostate.
• Laser therapy uses laser energy to reduce the amount of prostate tissue.
• Open prostatectomy is the last resort used if the prostate is very large and needs to be removed. An incision will be made in the lower belly, where the doctor will remove the prostate. 

Prostate cancer treatments include:

• Active surveillance – This is when you don’t get treated right away, your doctors monitor you and your symptoms and do DRE and PSA tests regularly to check for any growth. 
• Surgery – A radical prostatectomy removes the prostate gland and some of the tissue around it 
• Radiation Therapy – Radiation treatment uses high-energy X-rays to destroy the cancer
• Cryotherapy – This treatment uses intense cold to destroy the cancerous tissue 
• Hormone Therapy – Medicine is prescribed to block male hormones that fuel the cancer growth

Contact Us

If you are still having trouble knowing the difference in symptoms between an enlarged prostate and prostate cancer, contact us. You can talk with one of the best urologists in Miami about your diagnosis and all the treatment options.

Related Reading:

How Common Is Prostate Cancer in Men?

Cryotherapy Treatment For Prostate Cancer