OBJECTIVES: The individualised expectations of the patient will undoubtedly be one of the major preoccupations in the next few decades to guarantee optimal treatment through compliance. METHODS: A pragmatic, European cohort (France, Italy, and Portugal) of 477 patients presenting with urinary disorders, evocative of BPH, was followed-up over 6 months. A questionnaire regarding expectations was handed out at the first consultation. RESULTS: A total of 441 patients were evaluated. The symptom that 31,11% of patients wished to see improved with the highest priority were “getting up in the night to urinate”, then for 20%, “sensation of not emptying the bladder after urinating ". Amongst the symptoms that patients were the least concerned about were "the effort or force needed to start urinating" for 26,80% of responders, then “size and force of the stream of urine" for 15,38% and "the interruption of the flow of urine" for 13,40%.“Getting up in the night” was the principal complaint in all 3 countries (36,30% in France, 29 and 27,54% in Portugal and Italy), whereas "the effort or force needed to start urinating" is the symptom that preoccupies the patients the least in France and Italy, and the “size and force of the stream of urine” preoccupies the Portuguese the least.Nearly 87% of the Italians claimed that they would only be satisfied if they never had to get up in the night again, (35% for the French, 67% for the Portuguese).Overall, 60% of the subjects questioned said that they would be satisfied if they were “markedly” improved. CONCLUSIONS: The expectation of patients in the treatment of BPH is very important, and undoubtedly difficult to satisfy entirely. These results are probably due to the fact that our population was composed of patients that had been diagnosed recently.