Prevention

Although you cannot prevent the prostate from enlarging, you can take measures to reduce your symptoms:

• Limit your intake of liquids in the evening, especially drinks containing alcohol and caffeine. Cutting back helps to minimize the number of times you have to urinate during the night. (Also, drinking too much alcohol may irritate the bladder or prostate. Most experts recommend that men avoid more than two alcoholic drinks a day.)

• Ask your doctor whether if you can change or eliminate mediations that may be aggravating the problem. These medications include antihistamines, diuretics, decongestants, antispasmodics, tranquilizers and certain types of antidepressants. These can weaken the bladder muscle or narrow the opening of the prostate.

• Take every opportunity to use the bathroom and allow yourself enough time to empty your bladder completely.

Treatment

When to seek treatment and what action to take are personal decisions you should make with your doctor's input. The main reason to start treatment is that you are bothered by symptoms, or that changes in your urination are interfering with your lifestyle. It is rare for men with little or no symptoms to need treatment of any kind.

Here are three treatment approaches:

Watchful Waiting If your symptoms are not terribly severe, see your doctor only as needed.

Medications Drugs called alpha-blockers help to relax the muscles at the base of the bladder and increase a man's ability to urinate. Approximately 70% of men see improvement in their symptoms within a few days to a few weeks after beginning one of these medications. On the down side, alpha-blockers can cause dizziness, fatigue and excessively low blood pressure. Commonly prescribed alpha-blockers include tamsulosin (Flomax), alfuzosin (UroXatral), doxazosin (Cardura), and terazosin (Hytrin).

For some men, drugs that block testosterone can shrink the size of the prostate and increase the flow of urine. The drawbacks to this type of drug are that it can take three to six months to begin working, and that it can cause impotence in approximately 4% of men who take it. Commonly prescribed testosterone blockers, also known as 5 alpha reductase inhibitors, include finasteride (Proscar) and dutasteride (Avodart).