What Can Cause Poor Bladder Control?

Loss of bladder control, called urinary incontinence, is a common and usually embarrassing problem. It may manifest as leaking of urine when coughing, sneezing, jumping, or during other physical activity. But it can also occur as a sudden, strong, uncontrollable urge to urinate or wake up several times at night.

While the problem tends to occur more commonly in older people, it isn’t an unavoidable consequence of aging. In fact, you don’t have to live with urinary incontinence because you are aging.

So if urinary continence is disrupting your social life and daily routine or affecting your quality of life, speak with your doctor about it. Your urologist will usually begin with a conservative approach of recommending simple lifestyle and dietary changes to help you get relief from the symptoms. Or in some cases the doctor may recommend more aggressive medical treatments to free you from the condition.

Causes of Poor Bladder Control image

Types of urinary incontinence:

  1. Stress incontinence
    Stress incontinence occurs if exerting direct pressure on your bladder results in urine leakage. The urine leaks linked to stress incontinence typically occur when you cough, sneeze, laugh, exercise or lift a heavy item.
  2. Urge incontinence
    Urge incontinence manifests itself if you frequently experience a sudden, intense, uncontrollable urge to pass urine which results in urine leakage. With the strong urge, most find themselves urinating several times per day including throughout the night.
    Urge incontinence may be due to a minor condition, such as urinary tract infection. But it some cases it can be the result of a more severe condition such as diabetes or a neurological disorder.
  3. Overflow incontinence
    Overflow incontinence is when you experience frequent dribbling of urine. Usually the dribbling of urine is due to the inability to fully and completely empty the bladder.
  4. Functional incontinence
    Functional urinary incontinence is the result of physical or mental impairments that makes it difficult to hold urine and for many to even reach the toilet in time to relieve themselves. So many have urine leaking from their bladder as they struggle to reach the bathroom. 
  5. Mixed incontinence
    Mixed incontinence is if you suffer from more than one type of urinary incontinence. Most often mixed incontinence is a combination of urge and stress incontinence.

What can cause poor bladder control?

Many experience urinary incontinence due to an underlying medical condition, a physical problem, or a change in lifestyle.  The incontinence may be temporary if due to a change in daily habits and in those cases is an easily treatable condition. But if the condition is persistent when related to a medical condition or physical problem, undergoing a thorough evaluation by your doctor will help determine the cause of your incontinence.

Causes of temporary urinary incontinence:

  • Urinary tract infections
    Urinary tract infections may also lead to a strong urge to urinate. The urge may be too intense to the point of urine leakage before you can reach the bathroom. With the treatment of the source infection, the incontinence typically disappears.
  • Constipation
    Since the rectum is located near the bladder and shares many nerves with the bladder, having hard, compacted stool in the rectum can cause the nerves controlling the bladder to be overactive. In turn, increased urinary frequency may occur, resulting in incontinence. The incontinence usually resolves when the constipation ends.
  • Drinks that act as diuretics
    Some drinks have the ability to stimulate the bladder and increase urine volume. As a result, urine may leak due to the overwhelming volume in the bladder. Reducing the intake or avoiding these drinks helps to prevent incontinence.

    The drinks include: 
    • a. Caffeine
    • b. Alcohol
    • c. Artificial sweeteners
    • d. Chocolate
    • e. Carbonated drinks and sparkling water
    • f. Chili peppers
    • g. Large doses of vitamin C
    • h. Sedatives, muscle relaxants, and heart and high blood pressure medications
    • i. Foods with too much sugar, spices, or acids, particularly citrus fruits

Causes of persistent urinary incontinence:

  • Pregnancy
    Pregnancy is accompanied by hormonal changes and increased weight of the fetus. These changes may cause stress incontinence.
  • Childbirth
    During vaginal delivery, the muscles that control the bladder may weaken. The nerves and supporting tissues may also be damaged.  Due to the weakening of bladder muscles and damage of nerves and tissues, a prolapse (dropped) may occur in the pelvic floor. 
    Following a prolapse—where the bladder, rectum, uterus or small intestine is pushed down from the normal position and protrudes into the vagina—bladder control diminishes, resulting in incontinence.
  • Aging
    With age, the bladder muscles weaken and bladder control reduces. Also, as you get older, involuntary bladder contractions become more common, increasing the likelihood of incontinence.
  • Menopause
    The production of estrogen—a hormone that keeps the lining of the urethra and bladder healthy—reduces after menopause. As a result, the bladder and urethral tissues deteriorate, causing or aggravating incontinence. 
  • Enlarged prostate
    Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is a non-cancerous enlargement of the prostate gland. As the prostate enlarges, it puts more pressure on the bladder, which in turn loses control. Thus, an enlarged prostate often triggers urinary incontinence.
  • Prostate cancer
    Untreated prostate cancer can cause stress incontinence in men. Also, urinary incontinence may be an adverse effect of prostate cancer treatment.
  • Urinary tract obstruction
    Overflow incontinence can occur when there is a blockage of the normal flow to urine along the urinary tract. The obstruction may be due to a tumor somewhere in the urinary tract or a urinary stone.
  • Neurological disorders
    Disorders that interfere with the nerves involved in bladder control may trigger urinary incontinence. Neurological issues commonly associated with urinary incontinence include stroke, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, brain tumor, and spinal injury.

When should you see a doctor?

Please see a doctor if urinary incontinence is too frequent, embarrassing, and is affecting your quality of life. Your doctor will identify the underlying cause of the problem and administer appropriate treatment. 

Plus, you should see a urologist when the incontinence:

  • Causes you to restrict your social interactions and daily activities.
  • Adversely affects your esteem, confidence, and quality of life.
  • Is accompanied by other symptoms, such as pain or blood in urine.
  • Could pose other risks, such as the risk of falls as you rush to the toilet.
  • Is suspected to be a symptom of a more serious underlying condition.

At St Pete Urology, we have a team of urologists that boasts a rich knowledge and wealth of experience in treating urinary incontinence.  Our urologists conduct a thorough physical exam and take comprehensive medical history before requesting appropriate tests to help identify the underlying cause of incontinence.

We are proud of our tailored treatments and the remarkable results we achieve with all our patients. For more information on urinary incontinence and other urological problems, visit the site “St Pete Urology.”

What Can Cause Incontinence

Tonight we’re going to talk about bowel and bladder control primarily. So Dr. Graves and I both actually trained together at the university of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. And we’ve been each practicing for close to 10 years and we’ve had five years of urology training in residency and med school before that. And the topic tonight is something that we do have a lot of focus in and enjoy taking care of and have specialty in. So what causes incontinence of urine or stool there’s a huge host of things that something your doctor can figure out but sometimes it could be something you know is simple. If it’s mild like what you’re eating an excess amount of caffeine it can do that. Some people will be drinking an excessive amount of coffee, you know, I talk to some patients they’re drinking a pot of coffee a day. Other times it really has nothing to do with their diet, medications can do that certain diuretics can predispose to issues with urinary control. If you’re not as physically fit bedridden have other physical mobility issues sometimes that can deal with causing incontinence. And then other things can increase your risk like radiation of the pelvis before a prior injury to the spinal cord or your pelvic floor, certain pregnancy issues or childbirth like such as vaginal deliveries sometimes can have something to do with that. Complicated in terms of regards to different causes but something that is often easy to figure out when you see a physician.

What is the most common treatment for bladder cancer?

If you are diagnosed with bladder cancer, there are several effective treatment options including chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgery. Your doctor will recommend the best treatment for you depending on your age, the stage of the cancer, the severity of the symptoms, and your overall health.

At St Pete Urology, we use a shared decision-making approach in dealing with bladder cancer. Shared decision-making means that you and your urologist work together to arrive at a personalized treatment. We are very confident in the outcomes that we achieve through this approach.

So what is the most common treatment for bladder cancer?

Surgery is the most common treatment for bladder cancer. In fact, most people with the cancer need to undergo some form of surgery.  And it is only because surgery may not remove all the tumor cells that the other treatments—chemotherapy, radiation, immunotherapy, targeted therapy—may be necessary along with or instead of surgery.

For early stage bladder cancer, the most common surgical procedure is transurethral resection of bladder tumor (TURBT), also called transurethral resection (TUR). During the procedure, the surgeon inserts a cystoscope through the urethra into your bladder and then uses a tool with a tiny wire loop, a laser, or high-energy electricity (fulguration) to remove the tumor.

If the bladder cancer is detected late, your surgeon may opt for cystectomy—a type of surgery that involves the removal of part of the bladder (partial cystectomy) or the whole bladder (radical cystectomy). Partial cystectomy is the ideal option for cancer that is still small and has spread only slightly to the muscle layer of the bladder.

But for cancer that is large or has spread deeper into the bladder muscle or to more than one part of the bladder, radical cystectomy is the go-to option. It is the removal of the whole bladder together with nearby tissues, organs and lymph nodes. In men, this may include the removal of the prostate gland, seminal vesicles, vas deferens, and part of the urethra. And in women, it can mean the removal of the uterus, ovaries, fallopian tubes, and part of the vagina.

Treatments used together with or instead of surgery

  1. Using medicines

Certain medications are effective in destroying cancer cells. Medications used to treat bladder cancer are usually in the form of chemotherapy, immunotherapy or targeted therapy.

  1. Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is the use of drugs to destroy cancer cells. The drugs are administered in two ways: local (Intravesical) and whole-body (systemic). 

For Intravesical chemotherapy, a prescribed drug is delivered to the bladder through a catheter inserted via the urethra.  The drug destroys superficial tumor cells that come into contact with it, but may not be effective for deeper tumor cells or cancer cells that have spread to other organs. The most frequently used local therapy drugs are mitomycin-C, gemcitabine (Gemzar), docetaxel (Taxotere), and valrubicin (Valstar). 

Systemic chemotherapy means that a drug or combination of drugs is taken orally or injected into the veins. The drug travels through the bloodstream to various parts of the body and shrinks, slows down or kills cancer cells that may have spread beyond the bladder. 

Whole-body chemotherapy is done in cycles to give the body time to recover between treatments. Every cycle lasts a few weeks, while a complete treatment may take several months. Plus, systemic chemotherapy is often done before surgery to help shrink tumors, make them easier to remove, make surgery safer, and minimize the likelihood of a recurrence. 

The drug cisplatin is the most commonly used systemic chemotherapy drug to treat bladder cancer, particularly for the most frequent type of the cancer, known as urothelial carcinoma. The drug damages the DNA of tumor cells so they can’t reproduce. Cisplatin is typically used in combination with other drugs. The most common combinations are:

  1. Methotrexate, vinblastine, doxorubicin (Adriamycin), and cisplatin (MVAC)
  2. Gemcitabine and cisplatin (GC)

iii. Cisplatin, methotrexate, and vinblastine (CMV)

  1. Paclitaxel, gemcitabine, and cisplatin (PGC)
  2. Dose-dense (DD)-MVAC, which has mostly replaced MVAC. It has the same regimen as MVAC, has a growth factor support, and administered with short time between treatments.
  3. Immunotherapy

The treatment exploits the body’s own immune system to attack cancer cells. The attack on cancer cells is triggered by materials made either by the body or in the laboratory. There are two types of immunotherapy: local and systemic.

In local immunotherapy, the doctor injects an immune-boosting germ, usually interferon or BCG (Bacillus Calmette-Guerin) into the bladder via a catheter. The material draws the body’s immune cells to the bladder and activates the cells to fight cancer cells.

Systemic immunotherapy is primarily focused on immune checkpoint inhibitors. The drugs used, such as Atezolizumab (Tecentriq), Avelumab (Bavencio), Nivolumab (Opdivo) or Pembrolizumab (Keytruda), have the ability to block the protein PD-1 found on the surface of T cells.  Since protein PD-1 usually stops the immune system from destroying cancer cells, blocking it empowers the immune system to better eliminate cancer cells.

  1. Targeted therapy

The treatment involves using drugs that can target and destroy specific proteins, genes or tissues that enable the growth and survival of cancer cells. Drugs used, such as Erdafitinib (Balversa), Enfortumab vedotin—ejfv (Padcev) and Sacituzumab govitecan (Trodelvy), have the ability to block the growth and spread of cancer cells.

Before targeted treatment, the doctor runs genomic tests to identify the genes, proteins, and other factors contributing to the tumor. This helps to find the most specific molecular targets. 

  1. Radiation therapy

It is the use of high-energy x-rays or other particles to destroy cancer cells. The treatment is administered in the form of external-beam radiation, which is radiation given from a machine located outside the body. The alternative, called brachytherapy or internal radiation therapy, which uses implants, is not ideal for bladder cancer. 

A radiation therapy regimen, or schedule, consists of a specific number of treatments delivered over a set period of time.  

For bladder cancer, radiotherapy is used:

  1. When you have early-stage bladder cancer
  2. When you have early-stage cancer but can’t have surgery
  3. As a follow-up to TURBT or partial bladder removal surgery
  4. To prevent or treat symptoms of advanced bladder cancer

Safe, unparalleled bladder cancer treatment

Are you experiencing bladder cancer symptoms? Or are you worried that your urinary symptoms could be due to bladder cancer?

At St Pete Urology, we have a team of urologists that are skilled, knowledgeable and experienced in bladder cancer diagnosis and treatment. So you can trust us to detect the cancer in its early stages and to administer the most appropriate treatment. 

Through our collaborative, compassionate, multidisciplinary approach, we ensure that our patients get the best possible bladder cancer care. Visit us today for an accurate, timely diagnosis.

For more information on bladder cancer risks, prevention, signs and symptoms, diagnosis and treatment, visit the site “St Pete Urology.”

How Is Bladder Cancer First Diagnosed?

Early diagnosis of bladder cancer is crucial for successful treatment. Unfortunately, there is no specific test available for screening asymptomatic people for the disease. So diagnosis of the cancer primarily relies on the presence of symptoms.  

Working from symptoms

In fact, most cases of bladder cancer are diagnosed when patients report having blood in urine to their doctors. It is at this point that a urine test, called urinalysis, is often ordered to confirm the presence of blood in urine.  

Of course, having blood in urine does not necessarily imply that there is bladder cancer since bleeding can also be due to urinary tract infections, kidney stones, bladder stones, kidney disease, or a non-cancerous tumor. Hence, when blood is present, the urologist will go the extra mile to find out the underlying course.

Apart from blood in urine, your doctor may also suspect bladder cancer if you have urinary symptoms, such as frequent urination, burning sensation during urination, weak urine stream, nocturia, or inability to urinate.

Although occurrence of symptoms is usually the first basis for suspecting bladder cancer, it has various limitations. For instance, there are no symptoms that are specific to the cancer. This may lead to a misdiagnosis of the cancer as another disease with similar symptoms.

Also, many cases of bladder cancer show no symptoms in the early stages. So by the time you’re going to a doctor because of some symptoms, it may already be too late and the cancer could have spread to various organs and become difficult to treat.

Urinary tests

Regular urinary tests can help to detect early-stage bladder cancer. For when there is persistent blood in your urine, your urologist will be prompted to order for further tests.  Usually, when there is any amount of blood in your urine, your doctor will recommend a urine cytology test.

Urine cytology testing uses a random urine sample to check if the urine contains tumor cells. The sample is examined under a microscope to look for the cancer cells. Alternatively, the urine sample can be subjected to molecular analysis, which will detect the presence of various proteins or genes associated with cancer cells. 

Cystoscopy

This is a key bladder cancer diagnostic procedure that allows a urologist to see inside the body with the help of a thin, flexible, lighted tube called a cystoscope.  The cystoscope is inserted into the bladder through the urethra and has a camera to help the doctor clearly view the bladder. 

Apart from assessing the bladder, a cystoscope can be used to take a small tissue sample (biopsy) or to treat early-stage tumors without surgery.  Cystoscopy is a simple outpatient procedure performed in the doctor’s office, and is quite effective in detecting growths in the bladder and determining if there is need for biopsy or surgery.

Biopsy

If your doctor finds abnormal growth in your bladder during cystoscopy, a biopsy is the next and most definitive step. Also called transurethral resection of bladder tumor (TURBT), a biopsy involves the removal of a small amount of tissue from the bladder for examination under the microscope.

Usually the tumor, together with a sample of bladder muscle near the tumor, is removed. But additional biopsies of other parts of the bladder may also be necessary depending on the cystoscopy results. The tissue samples obtained during TURBT are analyzed by a pathologist to confirm bladder cancer, identify the type of tumor, and to find out how deeply it has spread into the layers of the bladder.

What are the warning signs of bladder cancer?

Because the bladder holds urine produced by the kidneys, the warning signs of bladder cancer usually relate to urination. Urine is made in the kidneys and moves down the ureters to the bladder, which then stores the urine to allow for an infrequent, controlled urination.

Blood in urine

The earliest warning sign of bladder cancer is blood in urine, also called hematuria. The blood may be present in the urine regularly or appear sporadically over the course of days or weeks. Plus, it may change the color of urine to orange, pink or dark red—though sometimes there may be no apparent urine color change.

Blood in urine is a critical sign of the cancer because early-stage bladder cancer does not often cause pain or other symptoms except bleeding. In fact, bladder cancer is usually diagnosed after patients tell their doctor about having urine in their blood.

Gross hematuria is when blood is present in urine in such a large quantity that the patient can see it. But sometimes, there may be microscopic hematuria, whereby the blood is present is such a small amount that it can’t be seen by the naked eye, though can be detected by a urine test. 

Nevertheless, blood in urine is not always an indicator of bladder tumor. It could be due to other less serious conditions, such as urinary tract infections, bladder stones, kidney stones, kidney disease, or non-cancerous tumors. Plus, in women, blood from menstruation may appear in urine and could cause a false-positive test result.

Urinary symptoms

While changes in urination are often a sign of less serious conditions, such as urinary tract infections, overactive bladder, benign tumor, bladder stones, or in men, an enlarged prostate, they may also be an early warning sign of bladder cancer.

Urinary symptoms that may indicate bladder cancer include:

  1. Pain or burning sensation during urination
  2. Frequent urination
  3. Nocturia—having to urinate many times throughout the night
  4. Feeling the urge to urinate even when the bladder is not full
  5. Having the urge to urinate, but being unable to pass urine
  6. Weak urine stream
  7. Lower back pain, often on one side of the body

When experiencing these changes, it is advisable to speak with your doctor as soon as possible. Your doctor will do a medical exam and order specific tests to help identify the cause of the symptoms. The doctor will also be able to rule out the cancer or run further tests to diagnose the cancer so that you are put on early treatment.

Advanced bladder cancer warning signs

Not everyone with early-stage bladder cancer will have symptoms. In some people, the first warning signs appear when the cancer has already grown too big or has spread beyond the bladder. 

Warning signs of advanced bladder cancer include:

  1. Pelvic pain
  2. Lower back pain, usually on one side
  3. Fatigue or general body weakness
  4. Inability to urinate
  5. Swelling of the feet
  6. Bone pain
  7. Unexplained weight loss
  8. Loss of appetite

For bladder cancer that has spread to other parts of the body, the symptoms typically depend on the affected organ. For instance, if the cancer has spread to the lungs, it may produce shortness of breath or persistent coughing.

Equally, if the cancer has spread to the liver, it may cause jaundice (yellowing of the skin or eyes) and abdominal pain. And if the cancer has spread to bones, it may lead to bone pain or a broken bone (fracture).

Timely diagnosis and treatment

If you are having blood in urine, urinary symptoms or other disturbing changes, speak with your doctor about them. The doctor will seek to establish how long, how severe, and how often you have been experiencing the symptoms. 

Together with performing a physical examination and ordering lab tests, the doctor will try to figure out the problem. If bladder cancer is suspected, your doctor will request for further tests to confirm the diagnosis.

 For more information on bladder cancer, its signs and symptoms, risks and prevention, and diagnosis and treatment, visit the site “St Pete Urology.”

How Does Bladder Bowel Control Work

Tonight we’re going to talk about bowel and bladder control primarily, so Dr. Graves and I both actually trained together at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. And we’ve been each practicing for close to ten years and we’ve had five years of urology training in residency and med school before that. And the topic tonight is something that we do have a lot of focus in and enjoy taking care of and have specialty in.

So bladder control is something we’ll discuss about the pathophysiology and how that works. So your kidneys filter your blood and make urine and then it goes into the bladder where it’s stored and then you pee that out. And you’re supposed to be able to control that and the bladder’s in muscle. And when the bladder gets full basically it’ll send a signal and you’ll get relaxation of the external sphincter, which is a sphincter control to control the urine. And then allow the sphincter to open and then the bladder squeezes down and drains the bladder. But this is a complex system and it does require basically the brain and its ability to inhibit the need to urinate and the ability to control relaxation. The sphincter and the spinal cord so it’s a pretty exquisite and very detailed system, but it’s something that different areas of that process can have an issue that could be fixed or could be the cause of the incumbents. And then the bowel control is very similar instead of a bladder you have intestines and a colon and a rectum where a stool is stored. And there is a sphincter as well that controls your ability to hold the stool in place and again that involves the brain the spinal cord and the the muscle of the rectum and the colon involved for bowel control you

Understanding Bladder and Bowel Control

Tonight we’re going to talk about bowel and bladder control primarily, so Dr. Graves and I both actually trained together at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. And we’ve been each practicing for close to ten years and we’ve had five years of urology training in residency and med school before that. And the topic tonight is something that we do have a lot of focus in and enjoy taking care of and have specialty in. 

So really we’re going to be dealing with two main things: that’s problems with number one and number two, so issues with urinary control and bowel control today. And actually I still remember one of the main reasons I went into urology was because I wanted to help people with quality of life issues. And often having issues controlling either urination or your bowels can be embarrassing and difficult to talk about. And a lot of patients I’ll even deal with for other reasons and they just don’t want to talk about it because they’re just embarrassed. But it’s very common and as patients even young patients can have issues but as we get older they can become more prevalent, but we want to create awareness about it and let you know that you can talk to your physicians, doctors and urologists about it and there are solutions and it’s not something you have to live with. 

So just a quick outline of what we want to talk about today is understanding the bladder and bowel control better today, the care pathway for these different treatment options. And then we can also talk about how medtronic has different treatment options such as inner stem, another type of treatment called neuro, and we’ll discuss those in detail and then we’ll open it up for some questions. So if you’re having bowel and bladder issues you’re not alone, it’s very common and one in six adults can have an overactive bladder. And we’ll discuss what that means so OAB is often referred to as overactive bladder. 

So you have about 37 million Americans who have an overactive bladder and that’s where you have urinary frequency, urgency, difficulty with controlling urination when you want to, and that can even have incontinence where you actually can have urinary incontinence and lose control of your urine. And then one in 12 adults can have fecal incontinence and that’s loss of control of having a bowel movement so that can be very distressing for patients. And this is quite common just to compare there’s 12 million patients in the U.S with vision problems and 17 million patients with asthma so it’s even more prevalent than that.

Does pelvic organ prolapse go away?

Why is pelvic organ prolapse so complicated and distressing?

With pelvic organ prolapse, one of the organs in the pelvic region—such as the uterus, rectum or bladder—drops downwards and bulges into the vagina.

What follows is a number of bothersome symptoms, such as:

  1. A persistent feeling that something foreign is inside you. The feeling worsens walking standing or during bowel movements. 
  2. A persistent pressure or pain in the pelvis and lower back.
  3. Troublesome urinary problems such as the need to constantly pass urine or the leaking of urine.
  4. Painful sex or urination

In some cases, the uterus and vagina may bulge through the vaginal opening. For many, this can be embarrassing and make sex uncomfortable, difficult and in some instances impossible. 

Does pelvic organ prolapse go away?

Unfortunately, pelvic organ prolapse will not go away without surgery. Untreated pelvic organ prolapse will remain the same and in many cases simply deteriorate over time. 

There is one exception.

If you have a mild prolapse after childbirth, it will in many cases resolve itself one year or so after delivery. In other words, the prolapse will follow the normal recovery trend after childbirth.

Otherwise, apart from pelvic organ prolapse after childbirth, prolapses tend to stabilize if managed with conservative treatments or get worse.

Why is surgery often necessary if you have pelvic organ prolapse?

An organ prolapse is not a life-threatening condition so you may choose to leave it untreated.

Of course, there are measures that can improve the condition and relieve the symptoms. For instance, pelvic floor exercises (kegel exercises) can strengthen your pelvic floor, improve the support for the prolapsed organ, and relieve the symptoms—though it won’t resolve the prolapse completely or reverse it..

In some instances, you may use vaginal pessaries. These are medical devices inserted in the vagina to provide support. In general, they will hold up the vaginal or uterus walls and push back the prolapse. 

However the most effective way to comprehensively treat a pelvic organ prolapse is surgery that is tailored to repair the prolapse. Ideally your doctor will restore the organ to its place, tighten your pelvic floor muscles, and restore necessary support in your pelvic region so the prolapse is successfully eliminated.

The type of surgery required will depend largely on the organ involved and the specific degree of prolapse. Hence, your doctor will customize the procedure to meet your specific condition and needs.

At St Pete Urology, we help women recover from mild, moderate or severe pelvic organ prolapse. Speaking with one of our experienced urologists will enable you to make an informed decision on how to manage a prolapse.

What Are The 5 Warning Signs of Prostate Cancer?

You are experiencing some terrifying symptoms.

Pain as you pee. 

Some blood in your urine.

Or frequent urination.

Now, you fear the worst.

You’ve heard of prostate cancer, and you’re scared you might have it.

Perhaps, that’s why you’re reading this post—to confirm your worries.

At St Pete Urology, we want our clients to be involved in decisions about their health. And to make the most informed health choices. 

So we strive to provide our clients with the most accurate and trustworthy information.  And direct them to where they’ll get helped.

We hope to help you overcome your worries. And make the right decisions.

Prostate cancer—a slow-growing cancer

Though prostate cancer is one of the most common types of cancer, it generally grows slowly and tends to be confined to the prostate. And as long as it remains in the prostate, it does not usually cause serious harm. In fact, slow-growing types of prostate cancers may need minimal or no treatment. 

Still, there are few types of prostate cancer that are aggressive, spread quickly, and need timely treatment. Such types of the cancer need to be detected early, particularly when still confined to the prostate, so that they can be treated successfully.

It is due to these types of the cancer that you should know the early warning signs of the cancer and seek prompt treatment.

Yet, with prostate cancer, there are a number of challenges when it comes to warning signs.

  1. Different men have different symptoms.
  2. Some men do not show symptoms at all.
  3. The cancer grows slowly, so it takes time for symptoms to occur.
  4. Only aggressive, rapidly spreading types of the cancer may need treatment.
  5. The cancer doesn’t show any signs or symptoms when in the early stages. So it needs to grow for a while before you can notice any signs.
  6. Signs and symptoms that appear as the cancer advances aren’t specific, and could be due to other non-cancerous conditions.

Nevertheless, any signs are still valuable in early detection of the disease as long as you consult your doctor as soon as you have worrying or persistent symptoms.

 The five warning signs of prostate cancer are:

  1. Pain or a burning sensation when urinating. Pain may also occur when ejaculating
  2. Frequent urination especially at night
  3. Blood in urine or semen
  4. Sudden erectile dysfunction
  5. Difficulty starting or stopping urination

Most of these warning signs are related to urination. That is because the prostate is situated beneath the bladder. So an increased mass or size of the prostate immediately affects the bladder and hinders urination.

When prostate cancer has spread beyond the prostate, other warning signs may appear. 

They include:

  1. Lower body swelling
  2. Bone pain
  3. Abnormal urinary or bowel habits
  4. Sudden, inexplicable weight loss
  5. Pain in the back, pelvis, or hips that doesn’t go away
  6. Difficulty emptying the bladder completely

When to see a doctor

Since the warning signs of prostate cancer aren’t specific, you should make an appointment with your doctor if you have any symptoms that worry you or if any signs are persistent. Your doctor will take your history, conduct exams, and order for tests that will help to rule out other conditions. 

Besides, even if you are diagnosed with prostate cancer, it is much easier to treat when detected early.

At St Pete Urology, we offer a full-range of diagnostic testing for prostate cancer. Our multidisciplinary team of urologic oncologic experts is devoted to evaluating, detecting and treating prostate cancer. Book your consultation now if you have any of the above warning signs. For more information on the diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer, visit the site “St Pete Urology.”