Anatomy of the Prostate Gland Anatomy of the prostate gland Imagine a little bucket sitting inside your belly - that's your bladder. In front of this bucket is a small organ that looks like a tiny chestnut - that's your prostate. A tube runs from the bottom of the bucket right through the middle of the chestnut, top to bottom. That tube is your urethra. Urine continually collects in your bladder. Every so often the muscles at the bottom of your bladder relax, while the muscles surrounding the bladder contract, pushing the urine into the urethra (tube) which runs through the prostate and continues through the penis, all the way to the tip and out of the body.

The prostate sits in front of and below the bladder and is wrapped around the urethra. That's why prostate problems (e.g. enlargement, infection, inflammation, etc.) may interfere with a man's ability to urinate and/or to have sex. The prostate happens to be where it is because it is needed for ejaculation, and the ejaculate passes through the same urethra as the urine does.

Situated under the bladder, and wrapped around the urethra, the prostate gland's primary job is to add special fluid to the sperm before it is ejaculated out from the penis. Sperm is produced in the testicles. From the testicles it moves up into the epididymis, where it matures, then into the two small, muscular tubes called the vas deferens, which coil up and around the bladder to the seminal vesicles.

During ejaculation, the seminal vesicles and the prostate gland contract and expel contents into the prostatic portion of the urethra and then down this route it washes out toward the tip of the penis. The two ejaculatory ducts pass through the prostate and open into the prostatic urethra.

Main duties of the prostate gland
One of the prostate's main duties is to add to the seminal fluid nutrients and other substances which mix with, nourish, protect, and carry sperm out of the penis upon ejaculation. The prostate also helps to push the semen containing sperm with sufficient power out of a man's body on its way to fertilizing a woman's egg. The prostate functions as a gland and contains muscle fibers which contract and relax.

What can go wrong with the prostate gland?
There are several types of problems that can occur within the prostate gland -- infection, inflammation, enlargement and cancer. Prostate infections, called prostatitis, are fairly common in men from teenage years on.

Prostate Infections
Prostate infections can be brief or long-lasting, mild or severe, easy or difficult to treat. Symptoms of prostatitis can include frequent and/or painful urination, other urinary difficulties or pain during ejaculation.

Enlarged prostate
Prostate enlargement, also called benign prostatic hyperplasia or Hypertrophy (BPH), is a non-malignant enlargement of the prostate and actually occurs as part of the normal aging process in men. Although men in their twenties can suffer from BPH, it usually surfaces later in life.

Prostate cancer Prostate cancer is the number-two cancer of men in the western world, but fortunately it ordinarily grows slowly thus allowing for detection and therapy. Unfortunately, once the cells that make up prostate cancer have grown inside the prostate for a long enough time to reach a critical mass in size and number of cells, the cancer can spread outside of the prostate gland to other parts of the body. Once free of the prostate, the cancer cells can migrate to the bones, liver, brain, lungs, spinal cord, or elsewhere. When that happens, the cancer that was simply annoying can become painful and eventually deadly. And it occasionally becomes deadly long before anyone knows it exists. Have more questions? Click here to find a doctor in your area.