King Charles: The Palace announces the monarch to undergo surgery, what is an enlarged prostate?

An hour after it was disclosed by Kensington Palace that the Princess of Wales had been admitted to the hospital for abdominal surgery, Buckingham Palace released a statement announcing that King Charles suffers from an enlarged prostate which requires him to have surgery next week.

Though nothing was specified about the nature of the Princess’ surgery, the Palace has shared the reason for the King’s upcoming procedure. So what is an enlarged prostate and how long will it take for him to come back to duty?

King Charles’ enlarged prostate, what is it?

According to the NHS, an enlarged prostate is absolutely benign. They specify immediately that ‘it is not a cancer and it's not usually a serious threat to health’.

Moreover, they also make it crystal clear that having an enlarged prostate doesn’t put you at a higher prostate cancer risk.

The symptoms of an enlarged prostate are:

• ‘difficulty starting to pee
• a frequent need to pee
• difficulty fully emptying your bladder’

Though the causes for an enlarged prostate are ‘unknown’, the NHS states that ‘it is believed to be linked to hormonal changes’ occurring when men get older. As a reminder, King Charles turned 75 in November 2023. He is the oldest person to ever be crowned King in Britain.

Finally, the NHS highlights that surgery is only needed when the patient suffering from an enlarged prostate ‘has not responded to medicine’ in a moderate or severe case of the situation.

How long will King Charles be in recovery?

As the NHS says, this condition is benign, however it can have complications. On the NHS’ website they list three: ‘urinary tract infection (UTI), chronic urinary retention and acute urinary retention’.

According to the NHS, the surgery the monarch is going to undergo is called Transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP). It involved removing a part of the prostate. During this procedure ‘a device called a resectoscope' is 'passed through the urethra’.

The NHS specifies that after a TURP the patient is expected to ‘need to recover in hospital for 1 to 3 days’ before returning home. Moreover, it is explained that after the procedure it is ‘common to feel tired and under the weather for a week or two’ though most men are completely fine after 3 to 4 weeks.

The NHS states that returning to work can usually take 3 to 4 weeks after the procedure.

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Sources:

SkyNews: The King will attend hospital for prostate treatment, palace says

NHS: Overview - Benign prostate enlargement

NHS: Treatment - Benign prostate enlargement

NHS: Recovery -Transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP)