Bob...your doctor will send you to a uro next.  I'm surprised she didn't do
a digital exam to check your prostate - I hope its not because she's a she,
and you're a guy :-) .  Be prepared for a bunch of crap with the uro if you
don't improve, and she sends you to him/her.  Let us know what pans
out...Pete

Doesn't really sound like BPH to me but I'm no doctor.  Best to have it
checked by a urologist.  Try to find one that is up to date with the
latest techniques such as laser treatments.

Due to enlargement of the prostate the urinary tract is blocked.  Kind
of like peeing through a pinched straw.

Symptoms include frequent urination, especially at night.  Bladder not
emptying.  Weak stream.  Frequent need to urinate.

A doctor can usually detect enlarged prostates by doing a digital rectal
examination

http://www.webmd.com/hw/colorectal_cancer/hw4404.asp

A urologist will do an ultrasound to detect retention and then often go
in optically and take a look.

How do the docs quantify BPH, urine retention, etc? Are any methods more
accurate and/or easier on my system than others?

======

hi bob - here's a quick way to give you some idea of what's going on
inside.

pinch off the urethra and hold it tight while building up some head
pressure.   then release and see if you can keep the stream going on the
same pace.  

you can stop and repeat this process over and over again to prove it to
yourself.   if there is a restriction in the line, much like a garden
hose that has the pressure just turned on.  

remember how you get that big gush of water and then, it drops back to a
small stream.  well, this will be similar is you have BPH.  of course,
it depends how bad the BPH is.

but if you can hold the flow of the stream the same, then you also have
the answer to your question.

hope this information helps.

~ curtis

knowledge is power - growing old is mandatory - growing wise is optional    
"Many more men die with prostate cancer than of it. Growing old is
invariably fatal. Prostate cancer is only sometimes so."
http://community.webtv.net/PALMER_ENT/doc

Bob,

You could have prostatitis without an infection, so if the antibiotic
doesn't work, it doesn't mean that you have BPH.  I had prosatitis as a
result of irritation from passing a kidney stone, and I just had to
wait for it to go away.  Anti-inflammatories can help, and my GP at the
time said 4 ejaculations per day would help (as if ! ! ! ).  The BPH
came years later and never caused any pain.  My current GP is a woman
and it kills her to do a DRE, though it is true that the smaller
fingers help.  She just kept prescribing new medications for BPH until
I found my own urologist and got a PVP.