Jargon Buster

Here's a quick guide to help you make sense of the medical words you might come across when reading about BPH on this website and elsewhere.

Active Surveillance

Another term for 'watchful waiting' - the monitoring of your symptoms through regular check-ups with a healthcare professional (instead of treatment).

Anus

The opening of your large intestine, where faeces passes out of the body.

BAUS

British Association of Urological Surgeons.

Benign

Non-cancerous, not malignant.

Bladder

A balloon-shaped organ that holds the urine that your kidneys produce. The bladder wall is made of muscle and squeezes the urine out when you pee.

BPH

Benign prostatic hyperplasia, the medical term for a non-malignant enlarged prostate

Erectile dysfunction

Problems getting an erection or keeping an erection for long enough.

Enlarged prostate

Another term used for benign prostatic hyperplasia - when the prostate becomes larger than normal.

Frequency

Needing to pee often.

Haematuria

The presence of blood in your pee.

Hesitancy

Having to wait before your pee comes out.

Hyperplasia

An increase in the number of cells, resulting in an enlargement of the organ (in this context, an enlargement of the prostate).

Incomplete voiding

Never feeling that you've completely emptied your bladder.

Incontinence

Not being able to control when you pee.

IPSS

International prostate Symptom Score - a questionnaire used by doctors to assess a man's symptoms and the degree to which they bother him. It can also be used by a man for his own self-assessment.

Intermittency

When your pee stops and starts.

Kidneys

The two organs that make pee.

LUTS

Lower urinary tract symptoms. The lower urinary tract includes the bladder and urethra.

Micturition

Peeing.

Nocturia

Getting up to pee at night (not the same as bedwetting).

Nocturnal enuresis

Bedwetting (i.e. peeing in your sleep).

Non-malignant

Not cancerous.

OTC

Over The Counter – medicines that are available from the pharmacist.

Prostate

The chestnut-shaped gland under your bladder that produces fluid for semen.

Prostate cancer

An abnormal growth of cells in the prostate that can spread to other parts of the body.

Rectum

The back passage, leading from your intestine to your anus.

Retrograde ejaculation

When semen passes up into the bladder when you ejaculate, rather than out of your penis. This is not a harmful or painful condition and it does not have a negative effect on sexual function.

Semen

The fluid that you ejaculate, made up of secretions from the prostate and elsewhere, and sperm.

Straining

Having to push to pee.

Terminal dribbling

Dribbling when you've finished peeing.

Testosterone

The male hormone. It triggers the growth of sperm and is responsible for male characteristics such as hair on the face and body and increased muscle strength.

Urethra

The tube that carries urine from the bladder down through the penis and out of the body.

Urge incontinence

Not being able to hold on when you need a pee.

Urgency

Not being able to hold on when you need to pee.

Urinary retention (Acute and chronic)

When you can't pee so the bladder becomes very full, swollen and painful.

Urinate

Having a pee.

Urologist

A healthcare professional who specialises in bladder and urine problems and other conditions of the urinary system.

UTI

Urinary tract infection.

Urinary tract infection

An infection of the urinary tract, any part of the urinary system including the kidneys, bladder and urethra.

Voiding

Going for a pee / peeing.

Watchful waiting

Another term for 'active surveillance' - the monitoring of your symptoms through regular checkups with a healthcare professional (instead of treatment).

Waterworks

An old-fashioned everyday term for the body's system that is responsible for the production of urine and the ability to pee.

Weak stream

Having a weak, dribbly flow of pee.