I am 70 going on to 71. My PSA reading was 5.57 today. I am a white Caucasian with enlarged prostate. I get up once a night for the bathroom. No major problems passing water, the flow is average (not weak). Health wise I feel fine.
Should I worry about my PSA reading being high, or should I leave things as they are, get tested again in say six months and see the pattern? I recently read that for my age group and ethnicity type a PSA level of up to 6.5 (one line of thought said 7.2) shouldn't cause undue worry. Do you agree? What's your experience like?
I agree ... I would wait. It is usually the level of increase.. not the raw number that counts the most. Mine jumped and I took a round of antibotics to reduce any infection I had and it dropped several points. So even if it jumps up a bit I would try the round of antibotics before getting a biopsy.
Mine PSA got up to 12.5 before I had the PAE procedure and it dropped to 3.4 after the procedure. So it appears my increase was related directly to enlarged prostate.
I am 73 and had PSA of 10 for 15 years, now down to 6 after TURP. Had Sepsis after second Biopsy. My advice would be stay on Active Surveillance as long as possible due to the problems all these procedures can produce.
I'm 69 soon to be 70. My PSA jumped from 2.7 to 5.7 when I was diagnosed with an enlarged prostate. Also I hadn't had the test done in about 4 years. My urologist and primary doctor both told me 5.7 is good. Evidently the prostate enlarging causes the number to go up. I'd say you're fine.
I agree that watchful waiting (and not worrying) shoudl be preferred. A close friend of mine who is about 63 recently had an elevated PSA, then needle biopsy that took 15 cores. It put him out of work for a month, there was one core that came back positive, and after all of that, he and his doctor decided on just monitoring the situation going forward.
Thanks all for giving me the news I wanted to hear! I will just wait and watch, and have another test in Jan/Feb 2017. Won't have the dreaded biopsy. Not yet anyway, and hopefully never!
The thing about this business of PSA is (in my case anyway) the not inconsiderable anxiety it causes before the test and while waiting for the result - not to mention all the prep a week before the test!
Thanks again and I wish you all a good evening and a prostate trouble free period ahead. Jeremy
Hi Jeremy, at 71 your PSA is considered below what can be expected for a 70 year old....In ten years it has only progressed marginally so that's good news, Plus you say you have an enlarged prostate....Then that will also allow for a higher than standard PSA.....If you know the size of your prostate in cc's (Prostate Density) then you can safely allow .1ng of PSA per 1cc. i.e. a 55cc prostate (reasonably enlarged) can happily throw out 5.5ng of PSA and nothing sinister is going on.....Keep an eye on it, but you appear to be all good
I defintely wouldn't worry, but there are few considerations to explore. Do you know how large your prostate is? A mesurement called PSA density which compares the prostate volume to the PSA can be very useful. PSA will rise with the size of the prostate. Also, what was your previous PSA reading and when was it taken? PSA velocity looks at how quickly the PSA is rising, and that's important. Is there a chance that you had prostatitus? Or rode a bike, had a DRE, or had an orgasm in the day or two before the test. These four things can cause a temporary rise in PSA.
A bit of my history. When my PSA rose above 4 many years ago, without the knowledge that I have today, I agreed to a biopsy. Negative. It continued to rise and had a second biopsy, also negative. It continued to rise to 9.7 a couple of years ago. At that point I knew about the 3T mpMRI scan that you should certainly consider before having a biopsy. The MRI showed a very suspicious area in the prostate, so it was prudent for me to have a third biopsy, this one a targeted biopsy which uses the MRI data to position the needles rather than just randomly placing them. Biopsy came back negative. Best exlanation for my high PSA (which remains above 8.5 today) is my large prostate, my PSA density around 10.
PSA is unreliable, having false positive and false negative results. My GP sent me to URL after high reading. Although I had slow flow and some retention before hand, several days after URL visit that included use of cystoscope, I ended up in emergancy needing catheter. Sinct then, have been on FloMax.
PSA s are so unreliable but are a necessary evil. I had all my life 3-5 values (I' m 64) after taking meds (once had near 60 after an UTI), which was rather high, but my doc didn't think much of it because I'm Indian. For Americans, for example,he said it would merit further investigations.
One month back I had my prostate surgery and just before the surgery the PSA came down to a decent 1.37, lowest I can remember. No apparent reason for the improvement. But yes, a close watch and may be a more serious test like an MRI(?) may be all you need at the moment. But a good doc would be able to walk you through the correct protocol. My point is, don't let PSA scare you. Go for confirmations/contradictions.
Hi Rich, prep is probably the wrong term. What I did for eight days is to abstain from alcohol and sex, and to eat very healthily. Also have early (earlier) nights.
Thank you, and to everyone else for the recommendations. I am really heartened by the fact that there are alternatives to biopsy and that they work!
A confession: I am totally ignorant about these alternatives and will be spending the weekend reading and digesting them.
Meantime I would be interested to hear from our friends across the water as their day progresses. I think I read somewhere that they may have different views to us in the UK.
Hi Tony, I am afraid I don't know the size of my enlarged prostate, but as I said earlier I will be spending some serious time noting all the interesting information I have gathered from this excellent forum, then out in place a plan of action of things I need to do. Finding out the size of my prostate will be on top of my list.
Thanks for the very useful, positive information you provided. Jeremy
Well mine was 16.92 at age 49, and it turned out to not be cancer. In the 4 to 10 range, I think about half the time it is just inflamed prostate tissue. Take physician's advice though, if he says to endure a biopsy, as I did, it might just save your life if it is cancer AND if it were fast-growing, or about to spread. You will probably go through bother for nothing if he does say biopsy, more likely he will say see if it is going up or not (another test at approximate future date nn), take his advice. We are just inexpert dudes who have been through this mill !
Hi Rich, as I said I am afraid I don't know the size of my prostate but will find out as a priority task. Previous PSA readings from memory are: ten years ago - 3.1; eight years ago - 4.31; two years ago - 4.88; today - 5.57.
I am afraid I don't know what prostatitis or DRE are, but will look them up (it will be a long weekend if research!). As regards the other items you mention, the answer is no.
So sorry to read about all the biopsies you've had. At least you now know that the elevated readings were the result of the enlarged prostate. I will drink to my prostate density registering 5.5+ cc!