Was Told by my doctor that Testosterone causes cancer

Your situation is one of those instances in which the medical community have been misled by faulty research published a century ago. That study was poorly performed, had no controls, yet has influenced modern medicine up to the present. On the other side of the coin there are literally hundreds of peer reviewed publications showing a strong link between low T and prostate cancer risk. Even worse, studies have shown that T depletion as a treatment is highly likely to make prostate cancer more likely and perhaps also more aggressive. Surprisingly, many if not the majority of physicians still have not gotten the message that TRT is the way to go when the patient has low T. As for PSA, that test is highly controversial as it is notorious for false positives alarming patients and leading them unnecessarily into getting prostate biopsies that are notorious for false negatives, yet are the most used diagnostic tool for prostate cancer. Far better for diagnosis of suspect prostate cancer is MRI of the prostate with visual guidance of the biopsy  needle to the suspect tumor. That said the PSA remains the best early detection of prostate cancer. PSA testing has a high false positive rate but a low false negative rate. Therefore a normal PSA is, although not infallible, reassuring. A positive PSA is scary but probably the vast majority of positive PSA tests turn out to be false alarms usually associated with bph which is highly coo on in males over age 50. So yes you are correct in your assessment. This area of medicine is a mess. But it's the best we have so you have no choice but educate yourself and if necessary your physician as to how you intend to negotiate this maze of options to make sure you get the correct diagnosis and treatment. Sadly you will have to be proactive and work closely with your physician, and yes, don't be shocked if you come to realize your information is better than your physician. As patients we really have no choice and rolling the dice and hoping for the best is not necessarily your best option.

 

Craig, I go to a Holistic Doctor occasionaly and she recommended I take the hormone DHEA (Dehydroepiandrosterone) to boost my testosterone levels. DHEA is normally produced by our adrenal gland but after our 40's production can be cut in half. DHEA is the building block for our bodies to make testosterone. I'm 65 and my testosterone levels range from 340 to 600 ng/dL. I take 10mg of DHEA daily. Might be a consideration for you to look into. 

Hello I have read that TRT does not cause cancer but If you have prostate cancer it will make it worse.  Mine is low I am on a testosterone gel for almost a year and have no problem  Take care  Ken

Craig,, I do understand your concern and anxiety over taking the PSA. I admit freely I too am anxious every time I take the PSA and at my age, 73 years, I take the PSA annually. And to to your point I have e peri ended on several occasions elevated PSA levels, that if taken at face value would have bought me a ticket for biopsy. In every instance of my elevatedSA reading, I had a spurious result and each instance was caused by a different reason. My most recent PSA at age 73 was 1.1. Here is my take home point to you: false positives for cancer are to be expected on the PSA. False negatives, are rare. So a good result on your PSA is and should be to you highly reassuring. And if one PSA comes back positive, just wait a week and take the PSA again. Keep in mind if you take a dozen repeat pSA exams and they are all elevated then you may indeed have prostate cancer and then the next step would be a biopsy. As for my false positive PSA readings, the first time it happened it was a lab error. The next time, I had had sex the day before and sex causes a rise in PSA. Another instance, it was caused by running the day before the test and yet another was caused by riding my Mt. Bike. So now when faced with an impending PSA and abstain from all those fun activities a full week before the blood withdrawal. So you see, you do have a lot of control over what happens on your PSA exam. Whatever you decide to do, do not allow a Urologist to persuade you to take a transrectal prostate biopsy usually conducted in their office. If you are convinced you need a biopsy have it performed via MRI imaging. You may have to travel to find an MRI guided biopsy of the prostate. Think OS the MRI guided prostate as using a guided missed to find a specific tumor. By contrast the transrectal approach uses a shotgun approach which is painful, has a high infection rate, and may even cause your prostate cancer to spread outside of your prostate, assuming one did actually have a prostate cancer.  Bottom line, prostate cancer if you catch it early, is a fixable disease and you may even be able to eradicate your cancer without sacrificing your prostate, sex life, and quality of life. So man up and go get that PSA done.