Expert discusses underappreciated aspect of BPH

In this video, Akhil Das, MD, FACS, shares what he feels is an underappreciated aspect of BPH. Das is a UCI Health urologist and a professor of urology at UCI School of Medicine.

Transcription:

What aspects of BPH do you feel are underappreciated?

I think one of the underreported things is quality of life. [Quality of life] is as important as other things in life. If you're living, you want to have a good quality of life. If you're getting up 5 or 6 times a night, or if you're much older and have a risk of falling down and fracturing your hip - once you fracture your hip, your life is shortened significantly if you're over 75 years old. Those are the things you think about. Those are things that are underreported, but people are afraid because they think it's a part of normal aging that can't be helped. I think that's what happens. I think it's like, "oh, yeah, I'm an old guy. It's normal to get up 7 times a night; it's normal to push to urinate, and I really can't do anything. I'll just go see my doctor when it gets really bad." But what happens is that there's a window of opportunity to treat a patient because BPH is not just a quality of life [issue], there's also an obstructive component. You can harm your kidneys, you can harm your bladder. Once you lose bladder function, there's nothing to get it back. We don't know the exact window, but you need to make sure you hit that window for treatment to benefit the person who's having the BPH issues.

This transcription was edited for clarity.