PSA Doubled in One Year

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.
 
Fedup said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.. :facepalm:
 
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.
 
Sunset said:
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.. :facepalm:
Click to expand...

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/prostate-cancer/should-i-have-psa-test/
 
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Sunset said:
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.. :facepalm:
Click to expand...
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.
 
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 said:
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/prostat...e_age-specific_reference_ranges_for_serum_psa
Click to expand...

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.
 
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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.....
 
gamboolman said:
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.
Click to expand...
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.
 
Ok, I thought I'd provide an update since it's been over six stressful months since I started this thread.

This is the day I was supposed to have an MRI and then a follow up appointment with the Urologist. Per the Urologist's advice I had a PSA test a week ago and the results were down to 2.52!!

So, I emailed the Urologist and asked if I should still have the MRI done and he said no, but keep your appointment and let's talk about it. Today the Urologist did a DRE and said the prostate is still enlarged but was normal in all other respects. He believes the Tamsulosin that I've been taking has helped. An ultrasound that he did today shows that I am now emptying my bladder to a good level.

He said that when you have an enlarged prostate and you are not able to empty your bladder properly, this can irritate the prostate and cause high PSA readings. That's why he prescribed the Tamsulosin and a follow up appointment 6 months from then. I didn't know this and didn't read that in any research I had done.

No other actions planned at this time other than keep taking the Tamsulosin, get another PSA test in a year, and have a follow up appointment with the Urologist in a year.

What a relief!!

As an aside, I also changed the time of year I get my yearly physical from July when I am very physically active to November when I am not as physically active since various forms of physical activity such as bike riding can elevate PSA levels.

Thanks again for all those who have shared your experiences and given me lots to think about, especially opting for the MRI instead of a biopsy, if that would have been necessary.

Cheers! :)
 
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Great news Freedom. Glad for you

I am especially interested as I have the enlarged prostate and high PSA readings.
I will ask the quacks in June when we go in to Texas for vaca - if my readings being high could be due to the bladder empty issue which I have very much so.
Not looking forward to another Core Sampling procedure....
Again congrats on the good news.
 
Great news! :cool:

I take the same drug and my PSA has never been more than 1.4, and usually less than 1.0 (over 10 years of tests). But, my prostate is a bit enlarged and has created the urination issue which the Tam seems to have created relief.
 
freedomatlast said:
Just completed my annual physical earlier in the week. Doctor's office called yesterday and said everything looked great except PSA doubled since last year. In 2016 it was 2.88, in 2017 it was 2.38 and this year it is 4.59. I'm 58 1/2 years old at this time.

They want me to come back in a month to check PSA again.

Anyone have similar experiences or information on this they would be willing to share?
Click to expand...

My husband went from PSA <1 to almost 4 in a year. Normally they don't refer to a urologist unless it is over 4. Fortunately, his PCP did refer him, and it turned out that he had stage 1 cancer (which his chosen treatment has "cured" with PSA tests at almost zero now).

The urologist told him that many GPs aren't as highly trained to know what to feel for during the physical part of the exam, so it was good he's a proactive doctor and referred due to the PSA test changing so much over just 1 year.

It can't hurt to get it checked out, and as two stage 0/1 cancer survivors I can tell you that it's better to nip any chance of cancer in the bud, but I generally err on the side of caution.

We still have too much to do in this life to get sick. :D
 
Cheesehead said:
...once you're diagnosed with a higher Gleason score, then it's deadly serious
Click to expand...

My DH a very high Gleason score, and we'd have had no idea that anything was amiss without the tests the urologist did. I'm so grateful that it was caught early and shot down.
 
I am sure most of you know this but bicycle riding and/or sex will elevate your PSA. Abstain from both for at least three days prior to the test. Six days if you do both at the same time----sorry for the sarcasm.
 
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