PSA Doubled in One Year

[Fedup]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Offgrid Organic Farmer I do not have a full list of whatever stuff they normally test for. They fill one vial of blood and send it to their lab. All I did was request that they add PSA onto the already long list of stuff they would normally test for. I did not experience any 'up-sell' of what was done.

Wait till you see your numbers first.

[braumeister]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gamboolman I'm at the early stage of figuring out if I have the Cancer or just BHP.

If it helps, I've been in your situation too. My PSA has varied over the years, generally anywhere between 5 and 9, and I've had three of those biopsies (shudder). But they were all negative and my urologist feels (might be a pun there) that I'm not dealing with cancer. I just have a really big prostate gland that naturally puts out a high PSA level. You might be the same.

[Fedup]

Quote:

Originally Posted by braumeister If it helps, I've been in your situation too. My PSA has varied over the years, generally anywhere between 5 and 9, and I've had three of those biopsies (shudder). But they were all negative and my urologist feels (might be a pun there) that I'm not dealing with cancer. I just have a really big prostate gland that naturally puts out a high PSA level. You might be the same.

From what I’ve read, even if it’s cancer, it progresses very slowly, you might die of something else even.

On the other hand, nobody mentions, you can die of infection of the biopsy. My husband was not too keen about it. It’s his decision regarding this.
Eating eggs and meat regular does raise your PSA which he does eat.

[Teacher Terry]

Depends on what age you get it. My husband got it at 49 so the cancer would have killed him before something else.

[Car-Guy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Teacher Terry Depends on what age you get it. My husband got it at 49 so the cancer would have killed him before something else.

I think it may also matter on the type of prostate cancer. One type is very fast growing and tends to spread and another type is very very slow.

[Fedup]

Teacher Terry, my husband never had any PSA test, I asked the doctor to at least get a baseline. Until the next test, I’m sure he won’t rush into anything. The doctor did the prostate exam, nothing was large or unusual, my husband has no problem yet.
It’s just precaution right now.

[Sunset]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fedup Teacher Terry, my husband never had any PSA test, I asked the doctor to at least get a baseline. Until the next test, I’m sure he won’t rush into anything. The doctor did the prostate exam, nothing was large or unusual, my husband has no problem yet. It’s just precaution right now.

The PSA test has some science behind it.
The doc doing the finger test is really a false test, as the doc cannot possibly remember what my prostate felt like before. He isn't even feeling it, as it is though the glove and the intestines and guck.

Now if it was 3 x larger than average he might notice, but I would be unable to piss at that point so the test would be unneeded.

It's like when medicine thought Lobotomies were a good cure for depression and mental sickness..

[volfan]

I don’t want to alarm you but my dad had aggressive prostate cancer and was still within normal PSA ranges until it spread. Through my research I learned that doubling time is more important than the actual score. So just because you are in the normal range please get checked. Maybe if his doctor had known it he would still be with us. He never had the bathroom symptoms. They thought he had lymphoma because of a swollen gland in the groin and were prepared to biopsy that when his blood work came back with his year later PSA number that was in the hundreds, too late. If only they had checked him out a year earlier when he had that doubling but barely within normal PSA result. He had cancer then that might have been treatable. Please follow-up, better to have a false positive than not know.

[Fedup]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunset The PSA test has some science behind it. The doc doing the finger test is really a false test, as the doc cannot possibly remember what my prostate felt like before. He isn't even feeling it, as it is though the glove and the intestines and guck. Now if it was 3 x larger than average he might notice, but I would be unable to piss at that point so the test would be unneeded. It's like when medicine thought Lobotomies were a good cure for depression and mental sickness..

We are doing another test the end of this year. But my husband is from the UK, I don’t think they did all these tests for his dad, his dad lived until 91, his uncle is still alive and lives alone at 96, fully functional. So it’s up to him, he may live in USA, but still behaving as living in U.K.

Here is a link from NHS regarding regular screening of PSA.

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/prosta...have-psa-test/

[bmcgonig]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunset The PSA test has some science behind it. The doc doing the finger test is really a false test, as the doc cannot possibly remember what my prostate felt like before. He isn't even feeling it, as it is though the glove and the intestines and guck. Now if it was 3 x larger than average he might notice, but I would be unable to piss at that point so the test would be unneeded. It's like when medicine thought Lobotomies were a good cure for depression and mental sickness..

Digital test can find a normal size prostate to be hard or lumpy , something that might not cause a high PSA, but could be cancerous, according to my doc.

A good question for your doc or urologist is do they get the DRE and PSA themselves. Mine do.

[Offgrid Organic Farmer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fedup Wait till you see your numbers first.

As soon as they saw my psa was 22 I was sent to a urologist.

[Fedup]

That’s pretty high, I hope they found nothing. What I didn’t like is they expect a male to be less than 3 when somebody’s approaching 70. There should be slightly higher number than 3. We did go to a urologist, but my husband is in the wait and see attitude.

[bmcgonig]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fedup That’s pretty high, I hope they found nothing. What I didn’t like is they expect a male to be less than 3 when somebody’s approaching 70. There should be slightly higher number than 3. We did go to a urologist, but my husband is in the wait and see attitude.

According to this the normal range for age 70-79 would be 0-6.5

60-69 would be under 4.5

https://www.medicinenet.com/prostate..._for_serum_psa

[Fedup]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bmcgonig According to this the normal range for age 70-79 would be 0-6.5 60-69 would be under 4.5 https://www.medicinenet.com/prostate..._for_serum_psa

The urologist said to me anything higher than 3 was not good, or something like that, he suggested biopsy to determine whether it’s cancer or not. My husband was less than 6 but more than 4. But ultimately, it’s my husband’s decision. He was worried about infections. Honestly, he never liked to go under the knife for anything, the last time he had an outpatient surgery, he was turning green as if he was going through a guillotine.

[gamboolman]

Got the results of the needle biopsy today....took them 10 days.....

No cancer - what a relief.

As I've know for years, I have the enlarged prostate, BHP, and will need to have the PSA checked semi annually.

To anyone faced with potentially getting a needle biopsy done - for me it was not / has not been bad. I may have been one the more fortunate ones in that regard. Had 12 samples and no infection. Have had the blood in urine as is normal, but no complications.

But for me - getting the biopsy was worth it to rule out cancer - as much as thats practicable with biopsies.

This whole month of waiting and wondering has reinforced the need to retire while we have our health. We are aiming for end of 2019.

Thanks to FAL and all of the others who have posted and shared - it was very useful for me, and I'm sure other's in similar situations will benefit from the information in this thread.

Thanks, gamboolman.....

[audreyh1]

Great news! Thanks for the update.

[Floridatennisplayer]

What a relief I’m sure.

[aja8888]

Great to hear!

Now you and DW need to get back here to Spring, Texas as fast as you can.

[Teacher Terry]

So happy for you guys!

[target2019]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gamboolman Got the results of the needle biopsy today....took them 10 days..... No cancer - what a relief. As I've know for years, I have the enlarged prostate, BHP, and will need to have the PSA checked semi annually. To anyone faced with potentially getting a needle biopsy done - for me it was not / has not been bad. I may have been one the more fortunate ones in that regard. Had 12 samples and no infection. Have had the blood in urine as is normal, but no complications. But for me - getting the biopsy was worth it to rule out cancer - as much as thats practicable with biopsies. This whole month of waiting and wondering has reinforced the need to retire while we have our health. We are aiming for end of 2019.

Congratulations on the negative result. I know what that feels like. My first 3 or 4 biopsies were positive, and last two have been negative.

I have yearly PSA, and biopsy every 18-24 months.

I agree that it is a good time to retire. Don't put that off any longer.