The Prostate and the Causes of BPH

What is the Prostate?

The prostate is a walnut-sized gland that it is part of the male reproductive system, which is composed of two lobes or regions covered by and outer layer of tissue. The prostate is situated exactly in front of the rectum and under the bladder where urine is stored; additionally it surrounds the urethra where the urine is released out of the body.

As of today it is unknown the entire functions of the prostate, but one the main is to secrete a fluid and squeeze it into the urethra as the sperm moves through during the sexual climax, and expelled as semen so the vaginal passage becomes less acidic.

What causes BPH?

There are no confirmed information or is not well understood what causes Prostate enlargement. However, it is a fact that this occurs to older men and it doesn´t to those whose testes where remove before puberty. So it is believed that testes and aging are related to BPH.

Men and women produce estrogen (Female Hormones) and testosterone (Male Hormones) in the blood, where men have more progesterone than estrogen and vice versa.  As a man gets older, the level of progesterone decreases, which will leave in the blood a higher level of estrogen. According to some studies done in animals, the estrogen contained in the glands increases the activity of substances in charge of cell growth.

Differently to the previous research, other studies focused on dihydrotestosterone (DHT) which is another substance in the prostate, that helps control its growth. Animals tend to lose the ability of producing DHT, contrary to men who continue to produce it even when testosterone levels decrease and accumulates it, encouraging cell growth. Those men who do not produce DHT do not develop BPH.