“(Smile) I liked the atmosphere. People in the department were nice.”

I burst out laughing. He chose urology just because people were nice? Isn’t he a bit too honest?

“The atmosphere is also very important (smiles). The characteristics of urology were attractive to me. Urology is a discipline that has both surgical aspects and aspects of internal medicine. Urology is the department that provides the most drug treatments among surgical divisions. It is like a mix of surgery & internal medicine departments. It was very exciting to experience both and there are a lot of high-tech surgical procedures involved as well (smiles). The Department of Urology is actually one of the departments that provides the most high-tech medical treatment.

Doctors used tubes during the Hippocratic period for bladder endoscopy in a primitive way. That was the start of urology. It was urologists who started using endoscopy for surgery as early as the 1960s in Korea. My friend told me that I just do circumcisions, and yes, I do circumcisions but that is only part of what I do. There are more than 100 common urological surgeries.”

I urged him to tell us about the other types of surgeries to urology besides circumcision.

Professor Lee said that there are so many to list. After pondering a bit, he finally started talking.

“I once had an interstitial cystitis patient. Interstitial cystitis is actually quite common. This patient suffered from an ulcer and general pain. He could not even urinate the way he wanted. He went to the restroom 30 to 40 times a day but that would still not be enough. How would you feel? You are unable to perform daily activities. There was no way he could go out. He was even contemplating suicide because of that. In the end, we had to remove the bladder and create a new one by cutting off the small intestine by 30 to 35cm. Now, the patient can urinate normally and has no problem in daily life.”

People usually think of the sexual aspect first when they hear the word, urology. Although urology has a lot to do with the sexual part, it is also a department in charge of urination.

“The Urinary System plays an important role as generative organs. However, it also plays the role of generating and discharging urine. Both are very important functions but don’t receive much attention. Maybe it is because people believe that a malfunctioning urinary system does not necessarily put their life at risk. But if you think of the quality of your life, it is a part that cannot be overlooked.”

I am a plumber

I can’t imagine how painful it would be to not be able to urinate at will.

“I often compare my job to that of a plumber as a joke. My job is help patients to urinate well. If you think about it, it is all about a pipe. If you are having trouble urinating, you are suffering from benign prostatic hyperplasia. On the contrary, if you urinate too often, an overactive bladder or urinary incontinence is the underlying cause. It probably sounds like a story of another world to a young person, right? But 40% of the patients in their 60s and 50% of the patients in their 70s require treatment. In the U.S., prostate cancer is the most common form of cancer among men. Korea is also showing a rapid increase of the onset rate of urological diseases as the country is becoming an aging society.”

“No. Although research results show that fat and meat increase the size of prostate, we can’t just tell people not to eat meat, right? You just have to consider it as part of the aging process. When I hear senior patients (female) from rural areas telling me that they have been using pads for years, it is a pity. It is sad that patients who are suffering from an overactive bladder, urinary incontinence, or benign prostatic hyperplasia were neglected because they could have benefitted from available treatments.”

“They are mature enough (smiles). Men visit urologists when they think there is something wrong with their body but this is not necessarily the case for female patients as of yet. In case of benign prostatic hyperplasia, there are a lot of patients knocking on the door. By the way, there is great improvement in the sexual aspect as well. In the past, I had to ask a female nurse to leave if she was in my office when the patient was likely going to ask me to prescribe Viagra. But that is not the case nowadays. People say what they need with confidence and the urology department always compensates right away.

“If I treat or perform an operation on a patient, you can see the results right away. This is one of the reasons why I was attracted to urology. A patient who was suffering just a moment ago can experience improvement right after the treatment or surgery. That is a huge compensation for a doctor.”

“Have you ever been to a rehabilitation hospital?”

“It’s a pity to watch how rehab hospitals manage dysuria of the elderly. Although there are hospitals that systematically manage the problem, most hospitals just give the elderly pads or use urinary catheters because it is easy. I understand that they are busy handling more patients than they can deal with, but this is something that we all need to think about. Urination is closely related to our self-esteem and a part that is crucial for maintaining human dignity. It is not just about suffering from physical pain or disease and I know, there are financial issues associated with medical treatments…but I still wish that we could solve their problem together.”