Knowing what the prostate is, where it’s found, and what it does helps you see how different prostate problems and treatments may affect your health now and later. This page gives you clear information about the prostate, common prostate issues, and your treatment choices so that you can take charge of your health and make decisions that feel right to you.
• The prostate is a gland
• It rests on the floor of the pelvis
• It is near fragile nerve pathways
• It wraps around the urethra
About the size of a walnut, the prostate lies between the bladder and the penis, and it is found only in males. The gland is just in front of the rectum. The urethra is a tube that runs right through the middle of the prostate, letting urine travel from the bladder out through the penis.
The prostate plays a key role in the male reproductive system. When a man ejaculates, the gland squeezes and sends a watery fluid into the urethra. This fluid is what’s called prostatic fluid, and it helps make semen.
The prostate gland is an exocrine gland. That means it sends its juice through small tubes to the outside of the body.
The prostate makes a light, milky fluid called prostatic fluid. This fluid mixes with sperm from the testes and with fluid from the seminal vesicles to create semen. Prostatic fluid makes up about 30% of the total sperm fluid. It feeds the sperm, protects them on their journey, and helps them stay alive longer.
PSA is a protein that the prostate's tiny tubes make. Some of it slips into the blood. Both healthy prostate cells and cancer cells make PSA.
A PSA blood test checks for the level of PSA, or prostate-specific antigen, that’s floating around in the blood. PSA levels can go up for other reasons, too, like BPH (benign prostatic hyperplasia), prostate cancer, or prostatitis (which is prostate gland infection). When the PSA test is done along with the digital rectal exam, it’s the best way for doctors to catch prostate cancer early.
What’s seen as a normal PSA level for an average man goes up as he gets older. For most men, a PSA level between 0 and 4 nanograms per milliliter (ng/ml) is considered normal.