🚹 Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS)

1. Over the past month, how often have you had a sensation of not emptying your bladder?

2. Over the past month, how often have you had to urinate again less than two hours after finishing?

3. Over the past month, how often have you found you stopped and started again while urinating?

4. Over the past month, how often have you found it difficult to postpone urination?

5. Over the past month, how often have you had a weak urinary stream?

6. Over the past month, how often have you had to push or strain to begin urination?

7. Over the past month, how many times did you typically get up at night to urinate?

Quality-of-life question: how would you feel spending the rest of your life with your urinary condition as it is now?

How the prostate symptom score is worked out

The International Prostate Symptom Score is made up of seven symptom questions scored 0 to 5 each, so the total runs from 0 to 35. On the frequency scale, 0 is not at all and 5 is almost always. The seventh question, on nocturia, is scored by how many times you got up at night rather than by frequency, so once scores 1 and five or more times scores 5.

The published bands are mild at 0 to 7, moderate at 8 to 19 and severe at 20 to 35. This page reports the band as published and prints the band definitions alongside it. The quality-of-life question runs from 0, delighted, to 6, terrible, and is a separate item that is not part of the total, so it is shown on its own line. Sources differ on whether the instrument has seven questions or eight with quality of life included; totalling the seven and keeping quality of life separate is the published scoring method.

This score is not a diagnosis. Sources state that it is not a reliable diagnostic tool for lower urinary tract symptoms and that it can be used to measure symptoms quantitatively once a diagnosis has been made. Current as of October 2026. Blood in the urine, being unable to pass urine at all, or pain with a fever needs medical care without delay.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is the nocturia question scored by count instead of frequency?

That is how the instrument is published. Only the seventh question is scored by the number of times you got up at night, with once scoring 1 and five or more scoring 5. The other six use the frequency scale from 0, not at all, to 5, almost always.

Why is the quality-of-life score left out of the total?

The quality-of-life item is scored 0 to 6 on its own and, as published, is not included in the 0 to 35 symptom total. This page keeps it separate for the same reason.

If the band is moderate, do I need treatment?

This page names no treatment threshold. The score is not a diagnosis; it puts a number on how troublesome the symptoms are. Take the total and the quality-of-life score to an appointment and discuss them.

🚹Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS)

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