All three prostate diseases — prostate cancer, BPH and prostatitis — tend to cause a greater impact on a sufferer’s quality of life than is, in fact, necessary.  That the conditions often reach a relatively advanced stage before men seek medical help is often the result of men’s laissez-faire attitude to lower urinary tract symptoms, embarrassment about discussing this area of their anatomy with their doctor, and their general reluctance to undergo regular health checks.

In fact, most prostate diseases eloquently illustrate the ‘stitch in time’ principle.  A ‘window of curability’ exists for prostate cancer, but once this is closed, neither surgery nor radiotherapy is likely, ultimately, to be successful.  With BPH, several studies have confirmed that there is a level of secondary damage to the bladder, caused by the obstruction, after which complete recovery becomes less likely.  And if prostatitis becomes chronic, then repeated and prolonged courses of treatment are often needed.

Men’s attitude towards their health has traditionally been ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’.  These days, the thinking should be more along the lines of ‘if you look after your body (and particularly your prostate), it has less of a tendency to go wrong’.  In prostate health, regular checks allow disease to be detected at a stage when it can generally be resolved, while preventative strategies may reduce some of the risks of disease developing in the first place.  It makes good sense to combine these with regular, more general health checks to exclude conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes, and to encourage a healthier lifestyle, particularly with respect to exercise and diet.