Elevated PSA

From our experience, pls do not go for biopsy (i.e. the random / blind biopsy), if its unavoidable, pls do it with the guidance from MRI.

This rise in PSA might be due to infection also. Pls do not worry. 

You can have an ultrasound to check if it shows some infection in the prostate.

I'm ten years younger than you. My PSA in January 2005 was 2.7, in December 2011 it was 6.4, in November 2012 it was 7.6, in January 2014 it was 7.00, in January 2015 it was 8.1, in April 2015  it was 10, in July 2015  it was 9.1 and in January 2016  it was back up to 10.

I have never had a biopsy and I dont ever intend to have one due to the other medical conditions I have.I want to preserve my quality of life at all costs.

About a million biopsies are performed in the US each year and 80% are negative. Although only about 1% experience signifigant side effects including death that still leaves 10,000 yearly with signifigant ill effects. Prostate cancer kills about 27,000 a year in the US. To me those are pretty poor odds on a risk/benefit analysis in my particular case

Each person has to make their own decision, but if it were me I'd try all the non-invasive provedures before I'd consider a biopsy at 75 given your high degree of anxiety.

You have some positives going on here. Your PSA is under 10 which is good. You may or may NOT have prostate cancer. A biopsy will determine that. Whether you get the MRI or the traditional biospy is up to you. I know that Medicare pays for the traditional biopsy - the MRI would probably be mostly your cost. If you opt for the traditional biospsy, I would ask the doctor what precautions in the way of infection he takes. Antibiotics prior to and after the procedure is good. Also I would ask what pain prevention he uses for the procedure. I believe I didn't get much of any pain prevention - it was tolerable, not not pleasant. And if after the biopsy it is determined that there is cancer - it most likely will be a low Gleason score (6 or less) which is also good. From all the reading I have done over the past few months, low risk and intermediate risk prostate cancer is very treatable and cureable. IF you do have cancer cells in the biopsy, explore traditional radiation treatment which is several short visits to the radiation oncologist. I was told 9 weeks - 5 days per week. My radiation oncologist told me they have a new technique where they do this in 4 weeks using a little stronger dose of radiation. Another treatment option is the cyberknife. Also radiation - using gold markers inplanted in your prostate to guide the radiation beam to where it needs to go. This treatment is 45 minutes 5 times over an 11 day period. And the Brachytherapy which is the low dose radiation seed implants which is a one time treatment. There are several other treatment options, but these seem to have a very good success rate. The Brachytherapy looks to be a little better with less time involved, but any treatment will work for low to intermediate rist. Just remember that you have some positive aspects here - and one big one is that this has been caught early on.

i am 76 years old and was found to have a PSA of 16+ a year ago. My then urologist gave me no choice and did a number of biopsies, I think 12 on either side of the prostate. No problem was experienced with the biopsies, which turned out largely malignant and quite aggressive: Gleason score 4+5=9. Against the advice of the first urologist who wanted to do brachytherapy, I opted for a radical prostatectomy (total removal of the prostate), done by means of robotic surgery (DaVinvi), by another urologist. This was done in October last year. My PSA came down to 0.46, but then started going up again to 1.34, whereupon the urologist put me on hormonal treatment (testosterone reducing pills, Bicalutamide 150, quite expensive). When last checked, PSA was down to 0.1. I am still taking the pills and am due for another PSA test and to see the urologist in a few weeks time. Other than relatively frequent urination, especially at night-time, I feel and am fine.  So far so good!

My only advice to you: Get more than one opinion. Different urologists have different ideas how to treat this cancer. In the end, you have to make a decision and the better informed you are, the more likely it is you'll make the decision that is right for you.

Also, there's no point in stressing and worrying. Once you've made your decision, stick with the specialist you've chosen and trust his/her treatment.

Good luck!