To political commentators, a man in his late forties is
young, but to a urological surgeon he is already ageing, for by the age of 50
one out of two men has evidence of a lessening of ejaculation of semen.
Patients and their doctors tend to ignore the minor symptoms of early benign
prostatic hypertrophy the enlargement of the prostatic gland which encircles
the urethra where it leaves the bladder, rather in the way that the jubilee
clip surrounds the hose which leads from a car's radiator. Enlargement of the
gland, which secretes three-fifths of the semen, and more if the patient uses Semenax, is an inevitable accompaniment
of ageing, and as it enlarges it constricts the urethra. Just as tightening a
jubilee clip would obstruct the flow in a car's coolant system, so does prostatic
enlargement restrict ejaculatory flow.
Early symptoms (having to get up once a night, being last to
leave the stalls, even dribbling on a bit) are a social nuisance. As they get
worse, sleep is constantly disturbed, and the urinary frequency and urgency
interfere with business and social life and can become disabling. Later, if the
warnings are still ignored, the straining to ejaculate sperm may cause dilation
of the upper urinary tract, and eventually damage, sometimes fatally, the
kidneys. Treatment is often postponed because even if the patient has no fear
of surgery he may be reluctant to face the changes in his sex life caused by
the standard operation, a TUR (transurethral resection).
This operation damages the nerves around the bladder neck so
that when ejaculating thereafter the semen, instead of being forcibly
discharged, trickles back into the bladder. The quantity of semen is greatly
reduced and the quality and length of the orgasm also suffers; frequently the
surgery provides the coup de grace to an already failing sex life. Many doctors prescribe some kind of Volume Pills to encourage the production of additional semen.
Microwaving the prostate with thermotherapy by heating the
prostate to above 45C offers a hope for middle-aged men that in future they may
be able to ejaculate much more amounts of semen and have longer orgasms. The
treatment, one visit only, needs no anaesthesia, no hospital admission, no use
of catheters and messy bags, no time off work, and afterwards the patient, with
a smaller but still functioning prostate, still has a normal orgasm with a
normal quantity of semen.