ABSTRACT
Recently, the prostate gland has emerged from the shadows into the full glare of media publicity; these days, barely a week goes by without the feature of some high-profile sufferer of prostate disease in the media. What lies behind this surge of interest? Prostate problems are increasingly common and men are now more inclined than ever before to discuss and debate them. Rising life expectancy has swollen the ranks of men of middle age and beyond. These individuals have a 43% risk of symptoms of benign prostatic hyperplasia and a 9% chance of being diagnosed as suffering from prostate cancer. Prostatitis, the third component of the triad of diseases considered in this Atlas, ranks among the 20 most frequent causes of outpatient visits to urologists, and is a cause of significant morbidity among sufferers.
