from ejaculation to urine flow today we're going to cover five surprising facts about the prostate I'm Dr Rena Malik urologist and pelvic surgeon and if you're new here I'm a Urologic content including bladder health sexual health and so much more each and every week I've made a couple videos about five surprising facts about the female body as well as five surprising myths about the clitoris and so we're continuing the series with five amazing facts about your prostate if you didn't know the prostate is a walnut-shaped organ that sits around the urethra and underneath the bladder for a lot of people particularly men who are a little bit older find the prostate to be just a huge nuisance it can get cancer and it can make it hard to urinate but today we're going to review five surprising facts about the prostate fact number one the primary function of the prostate is to make fluid for ejaculation during ejaculation the prostate releases a milky substance that's released with the ejaculate it's about 30 of the entire semen volume the purpose of this is to nourish and help help transport the sperm from the male semen into the female uterus and up through the Fallopian tubes to the egg for fertilization basically this fluid contains enzymes and proteins that help activate and nourish the sperm making it easier for them to move and ultimately fertilize the egg it's also made up of alkaline fluid to then neutralize the acidic environment of the female reproductive tract so in addition to these enzymes it also adds citric acid zinc calcium sodium and potassium and in fact the substances that the prostatic fluid creates changes the taste of the ejaculate so because of the alkaline nature of the fluid it can give a bitter or salty taste and it also can give a metallic taste due to the minerals and vitamins fact number two prostate massage was once used for medical treatment of prostatitis a prostate massage is a process by which you insert a finger gently into the anus and press against the prostate usually trying to feel all three kind of areas of the prostate that you can feel through the anus as I mentioned previously it was used as a treatment for prostatitis up until the 20th century some people thought that doing this massage would allow expression of prosthetic secretions and others thought it might relax the pelvic floor which can cause tension and pain if it's too tense which many people feel with prostatitis if you're wondering what prostatitis is make sure you check out my video where I talk all about it and lastly the other theory was that it could maybe disrupt any biofilm that the bacteria created on the prostate so the antibiotics can better penetrate the prostate and that it might even improve circulation in the prostate itself however despite these theories there have been several studies that have looked at this and ultimately there's no good scientific evidence to prove that there's a benefit for prostatitis or any other conditions in fact people have believed that prostate massage may even benefit people with erectile dysfunction painful ejaculation or even pain in the pelvic region now while this there is no medical benefit that we know from prostatitis some people do derive pleasure from prostate massage or prostate play and this is totally fine if you're interested in learning more about prostate massage and how to do it safely make sure you watch my video that discusses all the factors that go into prostate massage and how to prevent any damage to that area fact number three prostate cancer risk might be reduced by ejaculating more frequently a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that men who ejaculated more frequently at least 21 times a month had a lower risk of developing prostate cancer so why does this even make sense well the theories behind why ejaculation may help include number one is a theory that the fluid builds up in the prostate between ejaculations leading a prostate stagnation hypothesis and it suggests that over time if you're not regularly releasing fluid you can get carcinogenic secretions or secretions that are concerning for cancer promotion which can ultimately lead to the development of prostate cancer secondly the thought is that a jack calculating more frequently also reduces psychological stress which has been associated with or correlated with developing cancers lastly number three having normal rates of ejaculation or more frequent ejaculation may allow for a better microbiome and normal function of prostate cells specifically in regards to zinc and citrate metabolism which have been kind of associated or looked at for the development of prostate cancer so I've previously talked all about the study that looked at ejaculatory frequency and its relationship with prostate cancer so make sure you check that one out fact number four Size Matters did you know that the size of the prostate gland changes throughout a man's life at Birth the prostate gland is very small but it grows rapidly during puberty by age 25 it's reached its adult size however many people have benign prosthetic hyperplasia or more specifically an increase in the total number of cells within the prostate itself causing a formation of large nodules in the prostate and this enlargement over time can lead to blockage of the urethra or P tube which then causes a number of urinary symptoms which can include straining intermixy like starting and stopping hesitancy waiting for your stream to start and sometimes even urgency urinary frequency or even leakage and unfortunately BPH is very common nearly 70 percent of U.S men between the ages of 60 and 69 and nearly 80 percent of men greater than 70 have some degree of BPH that doesn't mean that everyone has symptoms or are bothered by having enlarged prostate but certainly many men do struggle with it and we have plenty of treatment options to help you so if you're interested in learning more about everything you need to know about your enlarged prostate check out my video on that fact number five screening for prostate cancer is easier than you think so prostate cancer is the second most common cancer among men worldwide after lung cancer and according to the American Cancer Society about one in eight men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lifetime time so when we talk about screening if you are younger than 55 years of age screening should be individualized and what that means is that if you're at higher risk you're African-American you have a family history of metastatic or fatal cancers like prostate cancer breast cancer ovarian cancer pancreatic cancer across multiple Generations or you have multiple first degree relatives who've had prostate cancer then you should begin screening earlier between the ages of 55 and 69 we generally recommend screening every other year and after that again a more individualized approach is needed how do you screen people well you screen people with a digital rectal exam which is essentially insertion of a finger into the rectum to feel the prostate to make sure there are no nodules or abnormalities in the prostate and the second way we do this is through a blood tests called a PSA or prostate specific antigen now PSA is not very sensitive for prostate cancer what that means is that if you have a low PSA it's very like that you don't have prostate cancer because it's very specific but if you have a high PSA it could be for a number of different reasons but it's a cheap affordable and easy way to screen for prostate cancer and a lot of people I think get worried about this digital rectal exam because I think it's uncomfortable it's painful and to be quite honest a lot of people find it mildly uncomfortable and some people find it more so but what is the data let me reassure you in a study of 269 men about to undergo a digital rectal exam they found out how they felt about the exam afterwards and before the Dre about 60 percent of people felt that the exam would be acceptable meaning that 40 were like I don't want this and after the Dre actually 92 percent felt that it was acceptable and the mean pain score on a scale of 0 to 10 was only 1.69 I mean that's pretty tolerable in another study of a hundred men they found that 61 did have moderate to even severe pain during the Dre but 94 four percent when asked if they would get it again next year said they would and 95 would recommend that their friends or family get a digital rectal exam so ultimately it's very very quick and it's important for your health to get screened for prostate cancer so I hope that you guys learned a lot during this video let me know what other areas of the body you want to hear surprising facts about and as always we're going to take care of yourself because you're worth it [Music]