Men's Health

New or sud­den gas­troin­testi­nal symp­toms should not be ignored as they can sig­nal a more seri­ous con­di­tion. Our Gas­troen­terol­o­gy team iden­ti­fies symp­toms that should be addressed with your health­care provider.

When it comes to prostate can­cer treat­ment there are many dif­fer­ent options for care. Did you know that rough­ly 25 per­cent of men who receive radi­a­tion treat­ment have a recur­rence? A treat­ment called sal­vage prostate cryother­a­py has become avail­able to help treat prostate can­cer reoc­cur­rence. Sal­vage prostate cryother­a­py can offer men a sec­ond chance as long as the can­cer has­n’t spread beyond the prostate.

Your prostate is a wal­nut-sized, mus­cu­lar gland locat­ed below your blad­der, and is respon­si­ble for secret­ing prostate flu­id which helps the flow of sem­i­nal flu­id. As part of the male repro­duc­tive sys­tem, your prostate gland grows sig­nif­i­cant­ly dur­ing your teenage years, near­ly dou­bling in size, and will con­tin­ue to grow for the remain­der of your life. In some cas­es, the prostate may become larg­er than aver­age, a con­di­tion called benign pro­sta­t­ic hyper­pla­sia (BPH). An enlarged prostate gland can put pres­sure on your uri­nary tract and impair the flow of urine from your blad­der. Oth­er com­mon signs of an enlarged prostate include:

Testos­terone is a hor­mone found in both men and women, although women pro­duce a much small­er amount. Testos­terone pro­duc­tion is typ­i­cal­ly at its high­est dur­ing puber­ty, and begins to decline around the age of 30. Although testos­terone is most com­mon­ly asso­ci­at­ed with an indi­vid­u­al’s sex dri­ve and sperm pro­duc­tion in males, it also impacts bone and mus­cle mass, red cell pro­duc­tion, the deep­en­ing of your voice, and can even affect your mood.

The con­cept of self-care — the par­tic­i­pa­tion in activ­i­ties that take care of our phys­i­cal, men­tal and emo­tion­al health — has been around for a long time. Self-care isn’t all about yoga class or read­ing a book with a cup of tea either!

Prepar­ing for preg­nan­cy is often an excit­ing time in many peo­ple’s lives. While the focus often cen­ters on wom­en’s health, there are many steps that men can take to improve their health. Fam­i­ly Med­i­cine physi­cian, Dr. Bri­an Beck­er, shares tips that can help improve men’s poten­tial for conception.

While the fun­da­men­tals of main­tain­ing good health are the same for men and women, the risk of devel­op­ing cer­tain con­di­tions can vary. For­tu­nate­ly, estab­lish­ing healthy habits can go a long way in keep­ing men feel­ing their best. Dur­ing the month of Novem­ber, in an effort to increase aware­ness of sev­er­al con­di­tions that affect men’s health, our physi­cians share tips to help men stay healthy.

The DMG urol­o­gists offer vasec­to­my con­sul­ta­tions and pro­ce­dures on select Sat­ur­days through the Men’s Health Clin­ic at the Lisle Med­ical Office Build­ing. These appoint­ments, offered in addi­tion to week­day appoint­ments, are avail­able to ease the has­sle of tak­ing off work for the con­sul­ta­tion and procedure.

Referred to by many as robot­ic surgery for prostate can­cer, or robot­ic prosta­te­c­to­my, da Vin­ci Prosta­te­c­to­my is more accu­rate­ly a robot-assist­ed, min­i­mal­ly inva­sive surgery that is quick­ly becom­ing the pre­ferred treat­ment for removal of the prostate fol­low­ing ear­ly diag­no­sis of prostate can­cer. In fact, stud­ies sug­gest that da Vin­ci Prosta­te­c­to­my may be the most effec­tive, least inva­sive prostate surgery per­formed today.

It is impor­tant to take care of your health, and that starts with under­stand­ing your health risks and rec­om­mend­ed screen­ings at each stage of your life. With the guide­lines con­stant­ly chang­ing and vary­ing opin­ions, it can be tricky to keep track! Annu­al exams and test­ing can save your life whether you are 21 or 65.