Prostate Anatomy
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 walnut
- that's your prostate. A tube runs from the bottom of the bucket right
through the middle of the walnut, 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 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 also passes
through the urethra.
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 part of the urethra. |
