A normal human male prostate is about the size of a small plum or walnut. The prostate sits above the base of the penis below the urinary bladder and backs onto the front wall of the rectum. The prostate evolved in this tight-wedged position to aid reproduction. Unfortunately, the prostate’s brilliant wrap-around structure with dual-purpose core tubing can become a liability if the prostate swells or enlarges due to a benign enlargement of cancer.
In males a single pipe, the urethra, serves two functions, urination and ejaculation. The urethra runs from the bladder through the prostate to the tip of the penis. The section that runs through the prostate is called the prostatic urethra.
The prostate in men, like the breast in a woman, is a gland that produces and secretes fluid and controls the flow of fluid. Cells lining the prostate gland make some of the semen that comes out of the penis at the time of sexual climax (orgasm).
The prostate gland makes almost a third of the fluid in the semen that a man ejaculates. Fluids from the prostate, the seminal vesicles and Cowper’s glands make up the bulk of semen. The fluids in semen makes a protective sea to nourish the sperm and protect them from the acidic environment of the female vagina.
