PSA reading 5.57; At 70+ should I worry?
Posted , 17 users are following.
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?
Thanks, Jeremy
1 like, 103 replies
stewarta JeremySt
Posted
Jeremy: I wouldn't even think about it.
Stewart
JeremySt stewarta
Posted
stewarta JeremySt
Posted
Jeremy: I will PM you. Sorry to say that having been down this path, I would simply talk with professionals rather than take to heart what one is reading here. Yes, a 3T MRI will show anomalies, but only a MRI guided Biopsy is a solid measure -- a Transperineal Fusion Biopsy.
PSA is a very unreliable measure. It is more reliable AFTER a prostate has been removed, than beforehand. There are so many false negatives, and false positives that one should not rely on the absolutes ... only the trend.
That's it from me.
Stewart
JeremySt stewarta
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richp21 stewarta
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If I'm understanding you correctly, and with great respect for your advice, I must say that I have a different opinion based on my own experience with 4 urologists and the experiences reported by many men in this forum and several well regarded books. I have been given misinformation or incomplete information by urologists more than once. It became clear to me that the ultimate responsibility for my care rested with me. By all means, get second and third opinions from doctors, but also do research using this forum and others and the web in general.
stewarta richp21
Posted
I couldn't agree more. But, don't just get the advice of urologists. I also consulted with Radiologists, oncologists and two Urologists with differing specialisations, ie. Full cut and robot-assisted.
fj20848 JeremySt
Posted
You need to treat your BPH symptoms before any thing. treatments starts from food supplements to alpha blockers.
FJ
JeremySt fj20848
Posted
What are the food supplements? I am already on Tamsulosin and Prostasan, the latter is a supplement.
Thanks
Jeremy
fj20848 JeremySt
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I actually do not know the ProstaSan but I read many articles about Pumpkin seeds oil. I have tried it for some good time and I always feel some relief of my BPH symptoms.
FJ
paul96555 fj20848
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paul96555 fj20848
Posted
Prostasan is just a particular vendor name for Saw Palmetto, a herbal remedy for BPH and for baldness (not so daft as it sounds : the male sex hormone DHT, derived from testosterone, is involved in both promoting too much prostate growth, and killing our hair follicles...). If you google "Does Saw Palmetto Treat Enlarged Prostate?", you will find contradictory articles/study-reports even on one medical website, as to its efficacy - I have no idea as to the truth. Certainly, nobody seems to have identified harm from it.
Googling "Prostate Cancer Risk Linked to Baldness" produces annoying results (I am bald, since age 30). The result on the livescience website is typical : "Men with any degree of balding were 56 percent more likely to die from prostate cancer over a 21-year period, compared with men who were not losing their hair. What's more, those with moderate balding were 83 percent more likely to die from prostate cancer, compared to those with no balding"..."An earlier study found that men who start to bald in their 20s were at higher risk for prostate cancer than men who don't start to lose their hair until later, but the new study found a link between balding and fatal prostate cancer regardless of age.".
NB a colleague told me those stupid London baldness "cure" places all prescribe the EXACT same 5-ARI's as used to cure BPH : finasteride (but when selling it to a baldy, they use a different name, "Propecia"
or what urologists know as Avodart (dutasteride; again there is a different name when sold to baldies, to make it sound like a very special baldness-cure). So men, if you do decide to try using 5-ARIs, with their potential side-effects, to cure your enlarged prostate in a more enduring way than Flowmax, you are getting the same stuff that a "trichology" clinic would charge you £2,000 for, if bald (which may or may not make you hirsute on top of your head once again .... ironically you may lose some of the hairs on your chest and body). And other than surgery, that is all that the trichology places have to offer, apparently, so they are just like a weird, expensive sort of urologist.
alan1951 JeremySt
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JeremySt, It's not a singular PSA number that counts. It's the trend taken over several PSA tests.
stewarta alan1951
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Mercifully, seven months later I am totally PCa clear. My take on it all is forget about PSA testing, and if you have prostate concerns fork out for a MRI, and take it from there.
harveybronx JeremySt
Posted
I'm in California I concluded a year ago that random biopsies are obsolete. The muilti-parametric MRI, that I had, is the way to go, to illuminate any suspicious spots of non-indolent PCa. My PSA shot up to 14 after rising from 6 to 8 in 15 years. The mpMRI came back negative, and a few weeks later, my PSA dropped back down to 8. If there were spots of suspicious PCa identified, a biopsy would have been in order, and it can be performed two ways.
The best way is an in-bore biopsy (inside the bore of the MRI machine), performed on the same machine on which the mpMRI was performed. Another, less accurate way to locate where the biopsies should be taken is to fuse the MRI image that shows the suspicious spots onto the ultrasound image. There's software to accomplish this, and this second method is far more available in the USA than is the in-bore biopsy. Even with this second method, the chances of biopsing the now known likely PCa, is far higher than with random biopsies.
One ultrasound technician told me he could detect likely PCa with his new US machine; however, I don't know the validity of that assertion.
Harvey
JeremySt harveybronx
Posted