LUTS - Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms

 

Both men and women may experience urinary tract symptoms.

 

In men, the most common cause maybe related to benign growth of the prostate - this is non cancerous. There are of course many other causes depending on the symptoms. Our team are experienced and expert at evaluating urinary symptoms in men and women, offering appropriate investigations and treatment in a timely manner.

 

Please see your GP for a referral and if possible, access the questionnaires on our "Patients' Page" and bring it with you after filling it out.

 

When seen in our clinic, we will often assess you clinically by examinig you, but are more than likely to ask you to do a test known as "a flow test" to measure the urinary stream strength. For this you will need to have a comfortably full bladder and pass urine into a machine that measures this. Following this test, we will perform a bladder scan to assess the amount of urine left behind.

 

Please note that there are many causes of urinary symptoms and you may need additional tests, which we can organise.

 

Options for treatment of the prostate are very dependent on a number of factors including the size of the prostate, the other medical conditions or medications you  maybe on and previous treatment. Two main classes of medication exist - one which relaxes the prostate muscles and one that shrinks the prostate over a period of time.

You will be counselled on each of these medications and their risks/side effects and benefits.

 

If these medications do not work, or if they are not suitable in your condition, surgical options exist which we can discuss in detail. However, in summary, it involves an endoscopic procedure (i.e. with a camera - no external cuts/scars) and "coring " out the centre of the prostate.