New Treatment Offers Hope For Men Suffering From An Enlarged Prostate

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Getting up to go to the bathroom multiple times a night is a condition that affects millions of men.

As CBS2's Dr. Max Gomez reports, there's now a minimally invasive procedure to fix the problem without the use of drugs, or the side-effects men fear.

The condition is called BPH, short for Benign Prostate Hyperplasia. It's a fancy way of saying the prostate is enlarged, a condition which affects most men over the age of 50.

Not all men have trouble with urination, such as having to go frequently. Now, there's a simple procedure that helps.

"Trying to sleep at night was just so difficult because I would constantly have to go to the restroom," prostate patient William Gaines said.

Like so many men his age, Gaines has an enlarged prostate. It's not malignant and it doesn't lead to cancer, but it is a serious quality of life issue.

"I was losing a lot of sleep over this," he said. "I couldn't even sit down and hold a normal conversation with someone without having to get up and go to the bathroom."

There are medications that can shrink the prostate, but they can have sexual side-effects. So can various surgical techniques to reduce or cut out parts of the gland.

Gaines wasn't keen on any of those solutions. Then, he found his way to Dr. David Shusterman at NY Urology, who explained that his enlarged prostate was compressing his urethrae -- the urine channel from his bladder.

The solution? A non-surgical, FDA approved procedure called Uro-Lift.

"It's both minimally invasive and very effective and long-lasting," Dr. Shusterman said.

Under local anesthesia at your doctor's office, a thin probe is passed into the urethra. Then several thread-like clips are inserted through each side of the gland. The little pledgets on either side then compress the prostate, opening up the urethra.

"The beauty of it is we don't cut anything and they're easily removable," Dr. Shusterman said. "Most of the time they go in very nicely, and you can see the result very quickly right after you put them in."

Gaines says the Uro-Lift was the right choice for him.

"I'm going to the bathroom like I did when I was 20-years-old again," he said. "It definitely approved my quality of life."

The procedure takes less than 30 minutes, and studies show relief has lasted for as long as ten years without side-effects such as impotence or incontinence.

It may not be for all men with BPH, but for those who can't take prostate medications or don't want surgery it's a very good option.