The news worries the United Kingdom. King Charles III, 75, on the British throne since his coronation in May 2023, will be hospitalized next week due to benign prostatic hypertrophy. The announcement was made by Buckingham Palace, according to which the decision was made after a medical consultation.
“Like thousands of men every year, the King consults for an enlarged prostate. What His Majesty is suffering from is benign and he will go to the hospital next week for a corrective procedure,” the palace announced in a brief press release.
Difficulty urinating
To understand what this disease is, it is first necessary to be interested in the functioning of the prostate. According to the Vidal medical dictionary, this gland located below the bladder “secretes fluids that enter the composition of semen” and “surrounds the upper part of the urethra, the urinary tube, at the place where it joins the bladder.”
Problem: As we age, the prostate grows and becomes overly large, to the point that some men find it difficult to urinate. This lump, associated with this gene, has a medical name: benign prostatic hypertrophy.
According to this same source, the risks of suffering from this pathology increase with age. “From the age of 60, 60% of men suffer from it and this figure increases to 90% from the age of 85,” we learn.
The symptoms of an enlarged prostate, also called prostate adenoma, are recognizable. When a patient is affected, their urine stream is slow to arrive and becomes choppy, and may flow for a minute or two. In addition, there is that feeling of never having emptied the bladder and, in fact, the urge to urinate becomes more and more frequent.
Various treatments
When the prostate grows too large and urine cannot flow, patients may suffer from recurrent urinary tract infections or even urinary stones. To treat this hypertrophy there are several means, including pharmacological treatment based on alpha blockers, Vidal highlights.
Otherwise, and this is the solution preferred by Buckingham Palace, surgical treatment is possible. According to this same source, this can be of several types: transurethral resection of the prostate, the most used, cervico-prostatic incision or even surgical removal of the adenoma. The installation of prostheses is also a solution.
However, as the Institut Curie points out, benign prostatic hypertrophy can never degenerate into cancer, which does not affect the same area of the gland, and does not increase the risk of developing this disease. “Both diseases can coexist without any link between them,” we learn, however.
Source: BFM TV
