Prostate
The prostate gland is found in men only. It is a small gland about the size of a walnut which surrounds the opening to the bladder, rather like a doughnut with a hole in the middle. It provides fluid for the sperm to be nourished and transported when ejaculation occurs.
Find out your International Prostate Symptom Score (I-PSS)
The international Prostate Symptom Score (I-PSS) is based on the answers to seven questions concerning urinary symptoms. Each questions is assigned points from 0 to 5 indicating increasing severity of the particular symptom. The total score can therefore range from 0 to 35 (asymptomatic to very symptomatic).
Although there are presently no standard recommendations into grading patients with mild, moderate or severe symptoms, patients can be tentatively classified as follows: 0-7 = mildly symptomatic; 8-19 = moderately symptomatic; 20-35 = severely symptomatic. The International Consensus Committee (ICC) recommends the use of only a single question to assess a patient’s quality of life. The answers to this question range from “delighted” to “terrible” or 0-6. Although this single question may or may not capture the global impact of BPH symptoms on quality of life, it may serve as a valuable starting point for a doctor-patient conversation.
