I know that if caught early, prostate cancer is one of the most treatable cancers, but I’m still worried and nervous. I’ve been putting off think about this too much for a while, but now that I’m back from my first real trip in 9 years, it seems I now have some time to worry.
I went through an MRI already and that was inconclusive.
There are some less scary things that also cause high PSA readings, so I guess I’m hoping it is one of those. One is BPH, Benign prostatic hyperplasia.
This thread was started as one guy’s journey but sorta morphed into a support and anecdotes thread with several current or former patients chiming in. You might find some useful tidbit, or at least helpful perspectives on your current situation.
Good luck in any case. My Dad had it, and I’ve got my weather eye peeled for signs of trouble in my life. So far so good, but …
I have gradual rising PSA (I’m in my late 50s, normal risk factors) and my Dr sent me to a urologist for a consult. Urologist explained options and I decided to first to do the MRI and see if that shows anything. He explained that while less invasive, may not be conclusive (as the OP states), and I may end-up going for the biopsy anyway. One step at a time, I guess.
Urologist did state that almost all men will get prostate cancer eventually. Most of the time it is later in life and many choose not to do anything about it by that point, but at my age screenings make sense because there is still runway to do something about it. He mentioned they checked the prostates of a few thousand cadavers of men who died in their 70s and 80s and 90s, and nearly all of them had some level of prostate cancer.
My FiL was diagnosed with Prostate cancer now two-three years ago, and we were all quite worried at the time. They went with brachytherapy and it’s been completely controlled, while having a very minor influence on his QoL, other than an increase in frequency of bathroom visits (well within norms, just more than before).
You probably know this already, but it’s going to hurt like hell. The urologist who did it to me wanted to take six samples. After five I told him to stop.
Maybe I’m a wuzz, but I’m happy if I don’t have to go through that again.
( I had it done in '99. Maybe it’s better now, but a close friend had one done a couple of years ago and reported intense pain.)
Good luck. I’ve had two potentiallly lethal instances of cancer and I’m still here. Finding it early improves the odds tremendously. Yeah. I’ve been lucky.
It’s less painful than kidney stones. I compare the pain of the biopsy itself to getting snapped by a stretched rubber band in a rather sensitive spot. More generally uncomfortable was just having all that hardware jammed up my butt. All in all, not even close to renal colic (kidney stone) pain. At least for me.
My PSA had been slowly climbing, but was worrisome five years ago. The MRI showed I had cancer, and identified where it was. I had brachytherapy also.
I did not have to stay in the hospital overnight, I had zero pain. Five years later my PSA is near zero and I have had no side effects. If anything everything works better. I do seem to have had about the best outcome my urologist has seen, but I’m down to video calls every year or so.
As for all men having it, I mentioned to the surgeon who did the procedure that my father didn’t (he died at 95) and the response was he did, he just didn’t know it.
My brother and I both ride our bikes a lot and “the interweb” says that this irritates the prostate and raises PSA levels which give a false positive for prostate cancer. Do you ride bikes a lot?
I do. The urologist did say that was a risk factor. In fact that was the only thing he said that may raise PSA levels outside of cancer or BPH (mentioned before I told him I ride a lot). My Dr and the Urologist were not alarmed at my PSA trend, but it seems it is enough to warrant screening.
Hock. My father as well as G-father died of Prostate cancer and I am super obsessed with my PSA and anything to do with it. Good luck but my good friend used brachiotherapy 10 years ago and he is doing just fine!
T
