How To Check Prostate Cancer
When youre checking for prostate cancer, its important to know the symptoms. When youre aware of the signs, prostate cancer can be caught early. Because prostate cancer doesnt typically show signs early on, prostate cancer testing typically involves a PSA blood test or digital rectal exams.
But, there are typically five major warning signs of prostate cancer however, as cancer progresses, symptoms typically involve the urinary system. Because the prostate is located close to the urethra and bladder, symptoms might include:
- Frequent urination
- Hip or back pain
- Leg swelling or weakness
Contact your doctor if you notice any of the above symptoms. And if you do catch any of these symptoms, try not to panic. These particular symptoms can often have to do with a non-cancerous prostate problem, as well as bladder infections.
Its important to know that there are also several different types of prostate cancer. The most common types found in prostate cancer patients include:
What Is Prostate Cancer Screening
The prostate is a gland at the base of the male bladder which wraps itself around the beginning of the urethra . Though small, it can cause big problems for mens well-being. Prostate cancer is the fourth leading cause of death in Australian men, after heart attacks, lung cancer and stroke.
The hope with cancer screening is that, by picking up cancer early, we may forestall death and avoid suffering. But for prostate cancer, our screening tests have significant limitations.
How To Find A Gp
If you dont have a GP, you can find a doctors surgery in your local area by going to:
To make an appointment to see your GP you:
- can telephone your GP practice
- book an appointment online through your GP practice website
- may be able to use the NHS App
Try different times of the day if it’s difficult to get through by phone. It could be particularly busy at the beginning of the day. You dont have to tell the receptionist what you want to see the doctor for, although sometimes it might help to explain your situation.
You might be able to go in person to book an appointment at some GP practices. But at the moment most practices do not provide this service. It may help to see if your GP practice has a website, this will explain the best way to get an appointment.
The receptionist at your GPs practice may offer you a telephone or video appointment first. Your GP will ask you to make another appointment if they need to see you again. You may be asked to attend in person, especially if they need to examine you. The receptionist will give you a date and time for this.
Accept a booked appointment, even if you think its a long time to wait. You could ask about cancellations if you are able to get to the practice at short notice. Do check that they have the right contact details for you, including your telephone number and email.
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Results And Follow Up
After a DRE, your healthcare provider will know right away if there are any problems like lumps or a prostate that is larger than usual . You will discuss any findings with your provider and plan the next steps. The results from a PSA test typically take around two weeks to come back, and your healthcare provider will go over these with you.
If all of your test results are normal, and you and your provider decide to continue screening, you will most likely need testing every two years. However, if the PSA test is abnormal, your healthcare provider may refer you to a urologist for additional testing.
Interactive Prostate Cancer Screening Tool
Talk to Nathan about Prostate Cancer Screening is an interactive conversation tool, developed in partnership with the CDC. Nathan shares information and answers your questions about prostate cancer screening and treatment. He also suggests some questions you might want to ask your doctor. Click the image to the right to get started!
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Can A Swollen Prostate If Untreated Cause Prostate Cancer
We have no evidence of that. Theyre completely unrelated problems. The area of the prostate that causes urinary symptoms is usually a different part of the prostate than where cancer is likeliest to develop.
Doctors divide the prostate into different zones. The zone that is associated with BPHand the majority of prostate growthis the transition zone. Prostate cancer occurs there much less often than in the peripheral zone, which is the outer area.
First What Is Prostate Cancer
Prostate cancer is cancer that occurs in the prostate â a small walnut-shaped gland in men. This is the gland that produces the seminal fluid that nourishes and transports sperm. Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers in men. Thankfully some prostate cancers are slow growing, without causing serious harm. However, others are aggressive, so for both scenarios, identifying the cancer earlier is key.
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There Are Risks To Getting Prostate Cancer Tests And Treatments
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.
Symptoms And Characteristics Of Prostatitis
From the clinical symptoms it can be seen that the main symptoms of prostatitis are shown at somewhere else. That is, many symptoms are outside the lesion. So for the initial patients who are suffering from the disease, it is most likely to delay the disease and the best timing of treatment. We can conclude them into the following three categories:
1, Symptoms of prostate pain
2, Urinary tract symptoms
The symptoms mainly show as dysuria, such as hard voiding, prolonged voiding, unclean urination, thinner urine, urine interruption, or even a bit like droplets or urination dysfunction. Some of these patients were found to have mild bladder irritation symptoms. And they have received treatment according to urinary tract infection with long-term ineffectively. What is more, it will also delay the best time for treatment.
3, Sexual dysfunction symptoms
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What Should I Expect During A Prostate Exam
As mentioned above, there are two types of screenings that your healthcare provider may use to detect prostate cancer: a PSA blood test and a digital rectal exam . Research shows that the PSA blood test is more effective for detecting prostate cancer. However, the DRE can still find cancer in people with normal PSA levels. For this reason, many healthcare providers recommend both.
Neither test confirms you have prostate cancer, which is why theyre considered screening assessments rather than diagnostic tests.
PSA blood test
For this test, your healthcare provider simply draws a sample of your blood and sends it to a lab for analysis. The PSA blood test measures the amount of prostate-specific antigen in your blood.
There is no official cutoff score that can determine whether or not you have prostate cancer. Instead, the results are used as a gauge to determine if more testing is needed.
If you have a high PSA, you may need further testing such as a prostate biopsy, MRI or other lab tests to determine if prostate cancer may be present.
Digital rectal exam
During a DRE, your healthcare provider inserts a lubricated, gloved finger into your rectum. This way, they can feel your prostate to see if there are any lumps or bumps on the back portion of the gland .
Three Grades Of Prostatic Hyperplasia
Doctors divide prostate into two layers: the inner layer is the mucosa and submucosal glands around the urethra. And the outer layer is the prostate gland. The latter constitutes the main body of the prostate, a fibrous membrane separates the two layers. Prostatic hyperplasia occurs mainly in the inner layer, it is between the bladder neck to the fine urethral part of the urethra gland, now the part is known as the transition zone with microscopic examination can see.
Mild benign prostatic hyperplasia:
The patient can show symptoms of frequent urination, urgency, urinary weakness and increase of nocturia.
Moderate benign prostatic hyperplasia:
The symptoms can be expressed as urinary endless, urinary pain, urinary incontinence , and the urination time was significantly longer.
Severe benign prostatic hyperplasia:
Urination is more laborious, and urination time is longer, urinary flow as the low-level curve or urine droplets, patients often get wet with their underwear.
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How To Check Your Prostate
This article was co-authored by Robert Dhir, MD. Dr. Robert Dhir is a board certified Urologist, Urological Surgeon, and the Founder of HTX Urology in Houston, Texas. With over 10 years of experience, Dr. Dhirs expertise includes minimally-invasive treatments for enlarged prostate , kidney stone disease, surgical management of urological cancers, and mens health . His practice has been named a Center of Excellence for the UroLift procedure, and is a pioneer in non-surgical procedures for ED using his patented Wave Therapy. He earned his undergraduate and medical degrees from Georgetown University and was awarded honors in pre-medical studies, urology, orthopedics, and ophthalmology. Dr. Dhir served as chief resident during his urological surgical residency at University of Texas at Houston / MD Anderson Cancer Center in addition to completing his internship in general surgery. Dr. Dhir was voted Top Doctor in Urology for 2018 to 2019, one of the top three Best Rated Urologists in 2019 & 2020 for Houston Texas, and Texas Monthly has named him to the 2019 & 2020 Texas Super Doctors Rising Stars list.wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. This article received 11 testimonials and 83% of readers who voted found it helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 1,084,801 times.
Can I Check For Prostate Cancer At Home
It is strongly advised under any circumstances not to self-examine for prostate cancer at home either by yourself or with a partner. Not only does it take a skilled professional to assess how the prostate feels to make an accurate determination of overall prostate health, self-examinations have the potential to cause injury.
âSince the prostate is an internal gland, itâs extremely important that only licensed medical professionals conduct the exam. At-home self-exams should not be administered in order to avoid injury or self-harm. Regular screening is important for prostate cancer, as the disease often does not present symptoms until it is too late. Talk to your doctor about making sure you receive a regular DRE check-up at each visit.â
While actually screening yourself for prostate cancer at home is ill advised, you can still monitor your risk factors for prostate cancer between yearly check-ups, like practicing a healthy diet and exercising regularly.
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If Your Gp Doesnt Think You Need Any Tests Or A Referral
- Can you explain why I dont need to have tests or see a specialist?
- Is there anything I can do to help myself?
- Do I need to see you again?
- Who do I contact if my symptoms continue or get worse, especially during the night or at weekends?
- Ive been reading about prostate cancer and wish to have a PSA test can you explain why I dont need one?
Do All Men Who Are Treated For Prostate Cancer Lose Sexual And Urinary Function
Its definitely not true that all men are incontinent and impotent after treatment for prostate cancer. Urinary incontinence is usually temporary.
There can be a sexual impact for guys who have normal function. If the cancer is near their nerve bundle, theyre going to have a decrease in sexual function. If its not, and we can do bilateral nerve sparing surgery, studies show 70 percent can get back their normal sexual function. It all depends on where the cancer is. But the truth is that we cant predict very well who will be the 30 percent who will haveor still haveED some already do have ED because of age, diabetes, hypertension or renal failure.
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What Would You Say To Men Who Dont Want To Get A Prostate Check
A rectal exam is recommended but optional. We recommend both, but if theyll just let you do a blood test, thats better than not doing anything at all.
If concern about the rectal exam is the only reason youre not getting screened, talk to your doctor about it. We can discuss the risks and benefits. None of the evaluation tests are mandatory, but the reason we do that is that it improves our ability to detect cancer. So, if thats why youre not being evaluated, we can talk and decide if we can do other tests.
What Are The Signs & Symptoms Of Prostate Cancer
It is difficult to catch prostate cancer early as there are no clear indicators. Its symptoms dont manifest themselves until cancer has developed significantly and begins making urinating difficult. This is because, as cancer grows, it puts pressure on the tube which links the bladder to the urethra. This causes difficulties in urinating or increases in the need to urinate.
Furthermore, an enlarged prostate is not always an indicator of prostate cancer. Many mens prostate gets larger as they get older and can cause these symptoms.
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What Is A Prostate Ultrasound Used For
A prostate ultrasound is used to check your prostate gland using ultrasound imagery. The procedure provides your doctor with black-and-white images of your prostate and the surrounding tissues. Your doctor usually wont do this as part of a physical examination, but they may recommend it if:
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How To Check Your Own Prostate
The only other thing I was drinking in the first 6 months after my diagnosis was green tea. I would drink about 4 glasses of green tea daily to go along with the increased water intake. I wasnt putting any other liquid into my body for the first 6 months. This was a big help in starting my road to recovery.
Once I started feeling better then I added organic soy milk to my diet as well. Soy milk isnt much like regular milk but once you get used to it then its not bad at all. To this day these are the only 3 liquids I have in my diet. To recap the 3 liquids I drink today are purified water,green tea,& organic soy milk. I put no other liquids into my body period.
Now, I want to chat a little more about meat & other aspects of a proper diet. As I said we dont need meat to live. I thought cutting or limiting meat in my diet would be to hard to accomplish. Well again my thinking was wrong. Was it easy? No! However, after a couple weeks then things were starting to get easier. I didnt cut all meats out of my diet but I did cut certain meats & eat moderate amounts of all others.
One meat that needs to be completely cut or at least very minimized is red meat . Too much Red meat consumption is not good for prostate health. I was eating a lot of fast food burgers & also red meat at home. I will say to at least cut red meat completely out of your diet until you get your prostate health back.
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What Is The Chance Of A Diagnosis Of Prostate Cancer
Around 17,000 new cases of prostate cancer are diagnosed each year in Australia. It affects mostly men in older age groups and is rare in men under 50 years of age.
The chance of developing prostate cancer is significantly higher in men who have a close relative with prostate cancer the risks are higher if the relative was diagnosed before the age of 60.
If you have a family history of prostate cancer, talk to your doctor.
Causes Of Prostate Cancer
The causes of prostate cancer are largely unknown. But certain things can increase your risk of developing the condition.
The chances of developing prostate cancer increase as you get older. Most cases develop in men aged 50 or older.
For reasons not yet understood, prostate cancer is more common in black men and less common in Asian men.
Men whose father or brother were affected by prostate cancer are at slightly increased risk themselves.
Recent research also suggests that obesity increases the risk of prostate cancer.
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How Do I Know If My Prostate Is Enlarged
If your prostate is enlarged, it may not be a sign of cancer, but it is something that you should discuss with your doctor. Many of the symptoms of an enlarged prostate tend to relate to urination. If you are concerned about an enlarged prostate, here are 7 symptoms to look for: