Medical Questions » Prostate Gland Questions » Question No. 812
| Question: | My prostate has been giving trouble, and my surgeon says he is going to remove it—through my penis! How on earth can he do that? |
| Answer: | Impossible as it may seem, most (but not all) of the prostate can be temoved through the penis.
The prostate secretes a fluid that lubricates the urethra (the tube that carries urine from the bladder to the outside) and nurtures sperm. It sits at the base of the penis behind the pubic bone. The gland is the size and shape of a small egg, but in older men it can enlarge to be two or three times this size. There is no cancer or other disease necessarily presenr when this enlargement occurs, but because of its position around the opening of the urethta from the bladdet, it can constrict the outflow of urine from the bladder when it is enlarged (see diagram). If the flaccid penis is held sttaight, it is quite easy (undet an anaesthetic) for an instrument to be passed down the urethra to the prostate. This instrument has a sharp edged cup at the end, which is used to scrape away layer after layer of the prostate to remove any blockage that is present. The scrapings are then washed out of the bladder and urethra. In this way, a quite large internal gland can be removed through a very small tube.
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