Nonsurgical Treatment of Human Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia

This chapter elaborates the nonsurgical treatment of human benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). Benign nodular hyperplasia of the prostate is the most common neoplastic growth in man. The results of surgical treatment for BPH are good with a low mortality, a modest number of complications, obtainment of a good functional result and with little effect on potentia. The incidence of BPH in 100 men over 45 years of age who had received testosterone propionate in the treatment of either angina pectoris or the male climacterium with the incidence in 100 age-matched controls is compared. Testosterone propionate had been administered to these patients intramuscularly in doses of 25–75 mg per week for periods varying from 3 months to 4 years. Twenty-seven treated patients showed prostatic hypertrophy, but 34 control subjects also had an enlarged prostate. It is found that when estrogen therapy was combined with the 3α-androstanediol treatment, the prostates were even larger, and the glands developed additional stromal components, which more closely resembled the type of BPH observed in humans.