Welcome

Your doctor says that you have an enlarged prostate gland — known medically as benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), or benign prostatic hypertrophy. What should you do about it? Will a medicine or nonsurgical treatment ease the urinary symptoms that interfere with your sleep and daily life? Or do you need surgery? Or should you just put up with it and hope it gets better instead of worse?

No single treatment choice is best for every man. What you and your doctor decide to do depends mostly on:

The severity of your symptoms
How much your symptoms affect your daily life

There are a variety of effective treatments for BPH, which can make it hard to decide what to do. To decide what's best for you, it's key to know the pros and cons of each treatment option. Then you'll be prepared to determine which risks you're willing to tolerate and which benefits are most important to you.

This guide can help you sort through all these factors. It's designed for men who have already been diagnosed with BPH. The guide explains your treatment options, including emerging and alternative treatments. You'll also meet three men who chose different ways to treat their BPH. They'll explain why they did what they did and what the results were. You'll watch a Mayo Clinic expert answer frequently asked questions about BPH, and you can see a list of questions to go over with your own doctor. You can also take a short questionnaire to assess your own symptoms.

Review the guide in sequence by following the links at the right or at the bottom of each page. Treatments are listed in order from least aggressive to most aggressive — from watchful waiting to minimally invasive treatments to surgery.

It takes about an hour or more to use this guide. You don't need to review the entire guide in one sitting, but it's a good idea to finish it before you talk to your doctor.

About the prostate