What is the difference between prostatitis and prostatic hyperplasia?

There are many diseases in the male prostate, two of which are very familiar to everyone, namely prostatitis and prostatic hyperplasia. Because the diseased part is the prostate, some symptoms of these two diseases are the same, so people often confuse them. In fact, there is a strict distinction between prostatitis and prostatic hyperplasia in medicine.

1. Early symptoms of prostatic hyperplasia

1. Frequent urination and urgency: The patient urinates 2 to 5 times or more every night, with a small amount of urine each time, and urinates frequently during the day. The bladder cannot be emptied every time it urinates, and the urge to defecate will come again not long after the previous urination. The effective capacity of the bladder is thus reduced, shortening the interval between urinations and causing urgency.

2. Difficulty in urination: Because the male urethra passes through the prostate, the enlarged prostate will inevitably squeeze the urethra to varying degrees, leading to difficulty in urination. The symptoms are slow urination, weak urination, dripping urine, soaking pants and shoes, making it inconvenient for patients to urinate upright and squatting, and then to segmented urination, that is, when holding the breath and urinating hard, the urine can be discharged with difficulty. Once it slows down, the urine flow is interrupted, and it takes another effort to continue to discharge urine.

3. Urinary incontinence: When the residual urine volume is large, the bladder is over-inflated and the pressure is very high, and urine overflows from the urethra on its own, resulting in overflow incontinence. Urine often drips, making the patient's pants often wet, which is very painful.

4. Urinary retention: Urinary retention may be the first symptom of prostatic hypertrophy. It is often caused by factors such as cold, fatigue, drinking, holding urine or constipation, which can cause acute urinary retention.

5. Hematuria: The capillaries on the prostate mucosa are congested and the small blood vessels are dilated. They are pulled by the enlarged prostate gland. When the bladder contracts, it can cause microscopic or macroscopic hematuria. It is one of the common causes of hematuria in elderly men. Macroscopic hematuria is also inevitable in patients with stones or tumors.

2. The symptoms of prostatitis are divided into two types

Symptoms of prostatitis include chills, fever, and fatigue. Local symptoms are that the lower abdomen feels like something is pressing on it. The condition worsens when sitting for a long time or when defecating, and spreads to the waist, lower abdomen, back, and thighs. If a small abscess is formed, the pain worsens and defecation becomes impossible; there is a burning sensation, urgency, and frequency of urination, which may be accompanied by hematuria at the end of urination or purulent discharge from the urethra; white discharge may flow out of the urethra during defecation, etc.

Such as frequent urination, urgent urination, painful urination, burning sensation in the urethra, incomplete urination, and sometimes difficulty urinating; white discharge dripping from the urethra at the end of urination or during bowel movements; decreased libido, premature ejaculation, impotence, spermatorrhea, painful ejaculation, etc.; dizziness, fatigue, frequent dreams, insomnia, tiredness, etc.

3. It is not difficult to see that the symptoms of these two types are different

Prostatitis: Mainly manifested by urinary discomfort symptoms such as frequent urination, urgent urination, painful urination, and white urine; wet scrotum; local pain, mainly below the waist, such as the thigh root, perineum, lower abdomen, etc.; decreased sexual ability and mental depression.

Prostatic hyperplasia: Prostatic hyperplasia develops slowly and is not easy to be discovered in the early stage. Symptoms include difficulty urinating, but it is mostly manifested in a significant increase in nocturia, intermittent urination, weak urination, thin urine stream, urine retention, and severe patients may have hematuria. If you have the above symptoms, it proves that you have prostate disease. There are many causes of prostate disease. It is recommended that you go to a professional andrology hospital for examination. I hope the above content will be helpful to you.