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Can You Check Your Own Prostate

What Happens After A Prostate Exam

Making Decisions After Being Diagnosed with Early Stage Prostate Cancer | UCLAMDChat

After your prostate exam, the doctor will evaluate the results and act accordingly. As noted above, the PSA guideline depends on your age, risk factors, and the results you get.

If you dont have alarming results, you will probably not need further tests. Your doctor may recommend a prostate biopsy if you have high PSA levels or suspicious lumps in the DRE or ultrasound scan.

If youre diagnosed with prostate cancer or benign prostatic hyperplasia, the urologist will give you various treatment options according to your condition, age, and other factors.

What Happens During A Digital Rectal Exam

Your health care provider will insert a gloved finger into the rectum and feel the prostate for hard, lumpy, or abnormal areas. The test takes only a few minutes to complete.

You may feel slight, momentary discomfort during the test. The procedure does not cause significant pain or any damage to the prostate.

Get A Prostate Cancer Screening

Getting screened for prostate cancer is one of the best ways men can show support in September and beyond. Its a great way to take care of your own health while also inspiring other people with a prostate to do the same.

The encourages men who are 55 to 69 years old to consider prostate screening. The recommendation applies to people who:

  • are at average or increased risk for prostate cancer
  • do not have symptoms of prostate cancer
  • have never been diagnosed with prostate cancer

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Should I Poop Before A Prostate Exam

You dont need to change any bathroom habits prior to your appointment. If you feel like you need to poop before your exam, then its fine to do so. But dont worry if you just dont have the urge. The prostate exam shouldnt make you feel like you need to go.

Theres no need to be embarrassed about fecal matter during your prostate exam. Your healthcare provider is experienced in performing this exam and will do everything to ensure your comfort during the process.

Indicators Of Prostate Cancer

See For Yourself: Prostate Exams Easel Display

As previously mentioned, prostate cancer will often present no symptoms in the early stages. If you have any concerns about prostate cancer, you should talk to your doctor.

If symptoms do occur, they may include:

  • An increased need to urinate, especially at night
  • A sudden need to urinate
  • Feeling like the bladder has not emptied fully
  • Difficulty starting or stopping a stream of urine
  • Pain in the pelvis, thighs, and back
  • Erectile dysfunction

You can screen for prostate cancer from home with LetsGetCheckeds at-home PSA test. This test is a screening tool which can help detect signs of prostate cancer in the blood. A raised PSA level can occur due to non-cancerous enlargement or inflammation of the prostate. These conditions also require further investigation.

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What Is A Psa Test

A PSA Test is a type of blood test that can diagnose problems with your prostate, including prostate cancer.

As this test is monitoring the level of PSA in your blood. If you find an unusually high level and your doctor may then recommends you for further testing. This can lead to diagnosing before symptoms begin to show.

It is important to remember that this is not a conclusive test whether you do or dont have prostate cancer. It is not uncommon for men to naturally begin producing more PSA as they get older or from their prostate becoming enlarged.

What a PSA test provides is an indicator that there may be a problem with your prostate. With that information, you can see your GP for further testing.

Symptoms Of Prostate Cancer

When this happens, you may notice things like:

  • an increased need to pee
  • straining while you pee
  • a feeling that your bladder has not fully emptied

These symptoms should not be ignored, but they do not mean you have prostate cancer.

It’s more likely they’re caused by something else, such as prostate enlargement.

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What Do You Want Men To Know About Prostate Cancer

The important thing to know is that, if you live long enough, you will probably get prostate cancer. If you live into your 80s, about 80 percent of men have some sort of prostate cancer. That doesnt mean theyre going to die from prostate cancer because, as a percentage, very few men die from prostate cancer. It means its important to be aware of it and consider screening early, so if its a high-grade type, we can identify it and treat it.

What Are The Prostate Cancer Symptoms I Need To Look Out For

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In its early stages, prostate cancer may not show any symptoms. Symptoms of early prostate cancer can include:

  • difficulty passing urine
  • a slow, interrupted flow of urine
  • frequent passing of urine, including at night

Symptoms associated with advanced prostate cancer include:

  • pain during urination
  • lower back or pelvic pain.

These symptoms are also found in men who may have benign prostatic hyperplasia , a common, non-cancerous enlargement of the prostate gland.

If you experience these symptoms, visit your doctor.

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How To Self Test For Prostate Cancer

Prostate Cancer is the most common type of cancer for men in the UK. It is a major health concern for older men as theyre more susceptible to developing it.

Cancer Research UK has seen approximately 47,000 cases new prostate cancer cases are diagnosed each every year between 2013 to 2015. This averages to 130 positive diagnoses a day. It is predicted that 1 in 8 men in the UK will be diagnosed at some point in their lives.

However, in recent breakthroughs in self-testing, it is possible to test for it in the privacy of your own home. In this article, we look at how men can self-test for prostate cancer in the privacy of their own homes.

Prostate Massage And Stimulation

The prostate is a small gland, about the size of a walnut, located underneath the bladder and inside the rectum. It plays an important part in the male reproductive system.

Self prostate stimulation, sometimes known as prostate massage or prostate milking, is a healthy, easy to perform a procedure whose benefits include positive effects to health, namely relieving an inflamed prostate and reducing the risk that the prostate will become inflamed in the first place. Prostate massage refers to both external and internal massage of the prostate gland, but this text deals mostly with the former.

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Ways To Perform Self Prostate Exam For Most Common Prostate Diseases

How do you perform self prostate exam? Do you know that you have got a problem with your penis? The answer is not very clear.

You can insert your finger, as described in my own page of self prostate massage, you may have some ideas, but not sure. It should be soft and not hard, painless soft touch, and feel smooth without caking. Make sure you use gloves and lubricate to make insertion easier. To be gentle!

DRE or digital rectal examination by a trained urologist will provide you with the information you need. He would be very hesitant if he wants to do a biopsy. This is because the procedure has a lot of risks. He may underestimate the path of the invasion including the act if he finds the slightest sign of cancer.

Due to prostate disease symptoms often have no specificity, which means that prostate disease is difficult to distinguish only from the symptoms. So when you have these symptoms, you should also check through many other exams to finally determine whether it is really a prostate disease. It is best to get aids from professional hospitals as soon as possible to find a solution. Urinary problems can warn male urinary system, including many organs, such as lower urinary tract, the bladder, prostate and urethra, they have directly relations to the appearance of urinary symptoms.

There Are Risks To Getting Prostate Cancer Tests And Treatments

See For Yourself: Prostate Conditions Easel Display

If your PSA is not normal, you will probably have a biopsy. The doctor puts a needle through the wall of the rectum and into the prostate to take a few samples. Biopsies can be painful and cause bleeding. Men can get serious infections from biopsies, and they may need hospital care.

Surgery or radiation are the usual treatments for prostate cancer. They can do more harm than good. Treatment can cause serious complications, such as heart attacks, blood clots in the legs or lungs, or even death. In addition, 40 men out of 1,000 will become impotent or incontinent from treatment.

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How Often Should A Man Get His Prostate Checked

Prostate cancer is the most common type of cancer in men.

The disease is prevalent in men over 50, and even if youre not diagnosed with prostate cancer, this is the only gland in the body that continues to grow throughout life.

This means that the prostate can grow enormous before it becomes a problem.

Men who do not have prostate cancer are likely to get benign prostatic hyperplasia at some point in their lives.

Prostate cancer and BPH can be severe illness that causes pain, impotence, and urinary problems.

These symptoms may not be noticeable until the problem is severe.

If caught early, these diseases can be cured. If you are diagnosed with prostate cancer at an early stage, you have a better chance of survival than if you had lung cancer.

But many men dont know they have prostate cancer until they have complications. Thats why doctors screen apparently healthy patients for prostate conditions.

So, how often should a man get his prostate checked? And what types of prostate exams can detect prostate problems? Keep reading to find out.

Weighing Your Options For Treatment

If you test positive for prostate cancer, you have some options as to what youd like to do about it. Until recently, nearly everyone opted for surgery or radiation, while some patients choose not to undergo treatment, instead opting for active surveillance, during which the cancers are left alone but regularly monitored to be certain that theyre not growing.

Certainly, screening can lead to earlier prostate cancer detection, and with earlier detection, youre eligible for multiple different treatments or active surveillance, said Sia Daneshmand, MD, director of urologic oncology at USC Urology of Keck Medicine of USC and associate professor of urology at Keck School of Medicine of USC. So we encourage patients who are candidates for screening to discuss it with their urologist and/or primary care physician so that we can determine whats the best course of treatment for them.

There also is a new option for those seeking prostate cancer treatment. Its called High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound , which uses ultrasound beams to non-surgically destroy prostate tumors.

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Treating Benign Prostate Enlargement

Treatment for an enlarged prostate is determined by the severity of your symptoms.

If you have mild to moderate symptoms, you wonât receive any immediate medical treatment, but youâll have regular check-ups to carefully monitor your prostate.

Youâll probably also be advised to make lifestyle changes, such as limiting your caffeine and alcohol intake, and exercising regularly, to see if they improve your symptoms.

As well as lifestyle changes, medication is usually recommended to treat moderate to severe symptoms of benign prostate enlargement. Finasteride and dutasteride are medications that are commonly used. They block the effects of a hormone called dihydrotestosterone on the prostate gland, which can reduce the size of the prostate and improve associated symptoms.

Alpha blockers may also be prescribed. They help to relax your bladder muscles, making it easier to pass urine. Tamsulosin and alfuzosin are two alpha blockers commonly used to treat benign prostate enlargement.

Surgery is usually only recommended for moderate to severe symptoms of benign prostate enlargement that have failed to respond to medication.

Both Tests Are Better Than One

Should I have a PSA Prostate Cancer Screening Test?

Using these tests together is better than using either test alone. PSA testing together with a DRE may help find a dangerous cancer early when it is easier to treat.

Follow-up tests

If a problem is found, more tests will be done to find out whether you have prostate cancer or another health problem. Further tests can include:

  • a follow-up PSA test
  • a transrectal ultrasound a test that uses sound waves to make a picture of the rectum and nearby organs, including the prostate
  • a biopsy of the prostate tissue samples of the prostate are looked at under a microscope

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Discuss Prostate Cancer Testing With Your Doctor

Medical authorities do not recommend that all men should be tested for prostate cancer. In fact, most authorities suggest that men should make their own choice about whether or not to have a PSA test. If you decide to be tested, it is recommended that it should be done every two years from 50 to 69 years of age, and only if your health is such that you expect to live for at least another seven years.

Men at high risk of prostate cancer, such as men with a family history of prostate cancer , or men who have previously had an elevated test result, can start two-yearly testing from age 45. Your doctor can help you decide whether this is necessary.

While there is now some evidence that regular testing may prevent prostate cancer deaths, there are concerns that many men may be diagnosed and treated unnecessarily as a result of being screened, with a high cost to their health and quality of life .

However, the option of active surveillance, where a low-risk cancer is watched closely instead of being treated, helps to lower these risks. Active surveillance is now used quite commonly in Australia for men with low-risk prostate cancer.

If you are unsure whether or not to be tested after considering the benefits and uncertainties of testing and your own risk of prostate cancer, discuss it with your doctor.

In Australia, if you choose to be tested for prostate cancer the tests are covered by Medicare.

Should You Get A Psa Test

Most people with penises will get a PSA test in their lifetime. Depending on your age and risk factors, your doctor may encourage one.

Organizations, like the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force , have laid out recommendations for those considering a screening.

The USPSTF recommends the following for those who have an average or increased risk of prostate cancer, do not have symptoms of prostate cancer, and have never been diagnosed:

  • If youre 55 to 69 years old, you should make an individual decision whether you want to take a PSA test.
  • Before making a decision, you should talk with your doctor about the including the benefits and harm of other tests and treatment.
  • If youre age 70 or older, you should not be screened for prostate cancer routinely.

The suggests you also consider the following when talking with your doctor prior to screening:

  • if you have a family history of prostate cancer
  • if youre African American
  • if you have other medical conditions that may make it difficult to treat prostate cancer if its found
  • how you value the potential benefits and harms of screening, diagnosis, and treatment
  • access to nurses to discuss your results

Cons:

  • takes up to 5 days to get results

LetsGetChecked has an average 4.4-star rating, with over 9,000 reviews on TrustPilot.

The company offers 38 testing kits and will soon be offering a PSA test. Customers praise the clear instructions, customer care, and quick results.

  • Insurance coverage: FSA and HSA accepted

Pros:

Cons:

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Should I Have A Psa Test

If you have no symptoms of prostate cancer and are thinking about having a PSA test, you should ask your doctor about the risks and benefits.

While some studies suggest PSA reduces mortality on a population basis, the test picks up large numbers of cancers that would have caused no symptoms or harm in the patient. This is known as overdiagnosis. Overdiagnosis of prostate cancer can lead to unnecessary treatments that have side effects such as sexual impotence, urinary incontinence and bowel problems.

It is important to balance the potential benefit of detecting a prostate cancer early against the risk that detection and treatment may not be necessary. Treatment may affect your lifestyle but it may also save your life.

Make your own decision about whether to be tested after a discussion with your doctor. Ensure you get good quality information to make an informed decision.

Screening tests for breast, bowel and cervical cancer can save lives, but there is still confusion around PSA testing for prostate cancer. Find more information here.

Remember, if you have any concerns or questions, please contact your doctor.

> > > This Simple Morning Test Will Fix Your Prostate

Pull your finger out, doc, rectal exams aren

Another type of prostate issue is chronic prostatitis, or chronic pelvic pain syndrome. This condition causes pain in the lower back and groin area, and may cause urinary retention. Symptoms include leaking and discomfort. In severe cases, a catheter may be required to relieve the symptoms. If the problem is unresponsive to other treatments, your doctor may suggest a surgical procedure. If these do not work, your symptoms could progress and become chronic.

An acute bacterial infection can cause a burning sensation. Inflammation of the prostate can affect the bladder and result in discomfort and other symptoms. This is the most common urinary tract problem in men under 50, and the third most common in men over 65. The symptoms of acute bacterial prostatitis are similar to those of CPPS. Patients may experience a fever or chills as a result of the infection.

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