Your treatment will depend on the nature and state of your prostate
disease, and, for some conditions, surgery may be the most effective
treatment. Sometimes you may be offered a combination of surgery and
medicines. Sometimes a minor operation may be necessary to diagnose the
nature of the problems prior to treatment options being determined.
Your doctor will discuss these options with you.
In the case of
prostatitis when the cause is a bacterial infection, your doctor may
consider prescribing you antibiotics. In some cases, medications may be
prescribed to deal with the symptoms of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). One key group of medicines, known as 5-alpha reductase inhibitors, can
be used to block the natural hormone testosterone that makes the
prostate enlarge. In some cases, medicines called alpha-blockers are
used. These relax the smooth muscle in the prostate gland by blocking
so-called alpha-receptors, allowing urine to flow more easily. At times,
your doctor may suggest a combination of these.
With prostate
cancer, you may be prescribed a course of hormonal
therapy in the early stages, prior to any radiotherapy that you may be offered. Usually this is for
3 months for patients with localised disease, but in cases
where the patient may have locally advanced disease or their PSA
reading is very high, the oncologist (cancer doctor) may suggest that
the hormone treatment be continued for a number of years.
In
the case of advanced prostate cancer, treatment is often in the form of
hormone therapy, utilising a group of drugs to reduce the production of
testosterone, as this can promote the growth of prostate cancer
cells.
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