Symptoms
Prostate cancer
usually doesn't cause
symptoms in its early stages. When there are symptoms, they may include:
- Having difficulty starting your urine stream.
This is called hesitancy.
- Having a weaker-than-normal urine
stream.
- Not being able to urinate at all.
- Having to
urinate often.
- Feeling that your bladder is not emptying completely
when you urinate.
- Having to get up at night to urinate. This is
called nocturia.
- Having pain or a burning feeling when you urinate.
This is called dysuria.
- Having blood in your urine. This is called
hematuria.
- Having blood in your
semen
. This is called
hematospermia.
- Having a deep pain in your lower back, abdomen, hip,
or pelvis.
These symptoms may also be caused by:
-
Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH)
, which is an enlarged prostate. This is very common in
older men. The prostate usually grows larger with age. When it gets large
enough, it can press against the urethra—the tube that carries urine from the
bladder through your penis—and cause bladder problems.
-
Prostatitis
, an
infection in the prostate.
-
Urinary tract infection
, an infection in any of the organs that make urine or the
tubes that carry it out of the body.
Symptoms that may indicate the cancer has spread, or
metastasized, to other parts of the body include:
- Weight loss.
- Bone pain, especially
in the lower abdomen, hip, pelvis, or lower back.
- Swelling in the
legs and feet.
For more information about prostate cancer that has come
back or spread, see the topic
Prostate Cancer, Advanced or Metastatic.
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