BACKGROUND: Few comparisons have been made of health care seeking behaviour for lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) between men and women, as well as trends across age groups.OBJECTIVE: To investigate the bother from LUTS and effect on health care seeking in both men and women of different age groups and in comparison between the two genders.DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: A representative cross section of each of 13 clinics of a general academic hospital, with equal numbers of subjects recruited in each of six design cells that were defined by age (18-40, 41-60, 61-80 yr) and gender.INTERVENTION: A 2-h in-person interview, conducted by a trained psychologist/interviewer in a clinic office.MEASUREMENTS: Severity of LUTS was measured by the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS). Treatment seeking was measured by a single item. A bother question was modified to assess overall bother. Impact on quality of life (QoL) was measured by the IPSS QoL question.RESULTS AND LIMITATIONS: The final study sample comprised 415 patients. More women than men reported the presence of LUTS (85.5% vs 75.2%; p=0.01). LUTS were more bothersome in women (25.4% of women vs 17.6% of men with bother "some" or "a lot"; p=0.02). Severity of LUTS increased with age in both genders (men: p<0.001; women: p=0.03). Bother from LUTS increased as severity of symptoms increased in both genders (p<0.001) but was associated with age only in men (p<0.001). QoL showed similar results as bother. Although men and women had equal prevalence of treatment seeking (27.9% vs 23.7%; p=0.40), men, but not women, were more likely to seek treatment as age (p<0.01) and severity of LUTS (p<0.001) increased. In multivariate logistic regressions, only bother from LUTS was associated with treatment seeking in women, compared with bother, age, and the presence of voiding symptoms in men.CONCLUSIONS: In our hospital-based sample, differences in LUTS frequency, bother, and health care seeking profiles between men and women suggest a different perception and response to LUTS between the two genders.