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Flomax
Flomax is often prescribed to relieve symptoms of an enlarged prostate. When first starting the drug, the dose is 0.4 mg once daily. If Flomax does not seem to be working after two to four weeks, your healthcare provider may increase your dose to 0.8 mg once daily. Potential side effects include abnormal ejaculation, runny nose, or dizziness.
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Flomax® (tamsulosin hydrochloride) is a prescription medicine that has been licensed as treatment for an enlarged prostate. An enlarged prostate is also known medically as benign prostatic hyperplasia, benign prostatic hypertrophy, or BPH.
(Click What Is Flomax Used For? for more information, including possible off-label uses.)
Flomax is manufactured by Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Flomax is part of a class of drugs known as alpha blockers. It works by blocking alpha-1 receptors. Alpha-1 receptors are found in several places of the body, including the prostate gland.
For the treatment of BPH, blocking alpha-1 receptors helps to relax the muscles of the prostate and the bladder neck (where urine leaves the bladder). Flomax does not shrink the prostate, as some other BPH medications do. However, by relaxing the muscles of the prostate and bladder, it helps to quickly relieve BPH symptoms. While the drug can help with symptoms, it is not a cure for BPH.
Several studies have looked at how well Flomax treats enlarged prostate symptoms:
Symptoms of BPH
In studies of Flomax for BPH treatment, men were asked to rate the following symptoms:
- Incomplete bladder emptying
- Frequent urination
- Intermittent stops and starts in the urine flow
- Feeling of urgency when needing to urinate
- Weak urine stream
- Having to get up to urinate frequently during the night.
The men who took Flomax had significant improvement in their BPH symptoms compared with the men who did not. This improvement was usually seen within the first week and lasted throughout the study period (13 weeks).
Written by/reviewed by: Kristi Monson, PharmD; Arthur Schoenstadt, MD
Last reviewed by: Kristi Monson, PharmD