Sunday, March 24, 2024

How Do You Self Check For Prostate Cancer

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What Is Screening For Prostate Cancer

How to Test for Prostate Cancer | Ask a Prostate Expert, Mark Scholz, MD

Some men get a PSA test to screen for prostate cancer. Talk to your doctor, learn what is involved, and decide if a PSA test is right for you.

Cancer screening means looking for cancer before it causes symptoms. The goal of screening for prostate cancer is to find cancers that may be at high risk for spreading if not treated, and to find them early before they spread.

If you are thinking about being screened, learn about the possible benefits and harms of screening, diagnosis, and treatment, and talk to your doctor about your personal risk factors.

There is no standard test to screen for prostate cancer. Two tests that are commonly used to screen for prostate cancer are described below.

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 Ultrasound Imaging Of The Prostate

Ultrasound is safe and painless. It produces pictures of the inside of the body using sound waves. Ultrasound imaging is also called ultrasound scanning or sonography. It uses a small probe called a transducer and gel placed directly on the skin. High-frequency sound waves travel from the probe through the gel into the body. The probe collects the sounds that bounce back. A computer uses those sound waves to create an image. Ultrasound exams do not use radiation . Because images are captured in real-time, they can show the structure and movement of the bodys internal organs. They can also show blood flowing through blood vessels.

Ultrasound imaging is a noninvasive medical test that helps physicians diagnose and treat medical conditions.

Prostate ultrasound, also called transrectal ultrasound, provides images of a mans prostate gland and surrounding tissue. The exam typically requires insertion of an ultrasound probe into the rectum of the patient. The probe sends and receives sound waves through the wall of the rectum into the prostate gland which is situated right in front of the rectum.

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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.

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Do All Men Who Are Treated For Prostate Cancer Lose Sexual And Urinary Function

Morningside Medical Practice

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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Self Prostate Exam For Prostate Stones

How to detect prostate stones in time? Experts said that the nature of prostate stones is the same as kidney stones, and stomach stones. However, the location of stones is in the prostate. Then how do we perform self prostate exam for prostate stones?

Self prostate exam for prostate stones

1, under normal circumstances, the existence of prostate stones alone has no symptoms.

2, when the prostate gland and benign prostatic hyperplasia coexist, there will be symptoms of weak, urinary frequency, urinary wait, urine droplets and so on.

4, when the prostate stones and urethritis or other diseases of urinary tract infection coexist, there will be symptoms of frequent urination, urgency, hematuria and so on.

Summary

Above is the self prostate exam for prostate stones, have you learned it? Experts said that the best way for an early detection of prostate stones is to go to the hospital for medical examination. If your body has had the above symptoms, be sure go to the regular hospital for timely inspection.

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.

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When Is A Psa Test Needed

If you are age 50 to 74, you should discuss the PSA test with your doctor. Ask about the possible risks and benefits.

Men under 50 or over 75 rarely need a PSA test, unless they have a high risk for prostate cancer.

  • You are more likely to get prostate cancer if you have a family history of prostate cancer, especially in a close relative such as a parent or sibling.
  • Your risks are higher if your relative got prostate cancer before age 60 or died from it before age 75. These early cancers are more likely to grow faster.
  • If you have these risks, you may want to ask your doctor about getting the PSA test before age 50.

This report is for you to use when talking with your healthcare provider. It is not a substitute for medical advice and treatment. Use of this report is at your own risk.

04/2014

Is Going To The Bathroom Frequently A Sign Of Prostate Cancer

What it’s like to go for a rectal screening for prostate cancer

Thats one of the challenging things having urinary symptoms is very rarelyalmost nevera sign of prostate cancer. Having urinary symptoms means you should probably be evaluated for an enlarged prostate, also known as benign prostatic hyperplasia . We can treat your urinary symptoms and help you pee better.

If urinary symptoms bring men to the doctor, we can discuss screening for prostate cancer. Thats important because not all men will go to a doctor until theres something wrong with them. And prostate cancer screening really is the only way to detect prostate cancer, because its almost always asymptomatic.

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If Youre The Giving Partner

Cleanliness and safety are a must, even for the giver.

Wash your hands thoroughly, even if youre planning to use a condom over your finger to penetrate your partner. For extra comfort, stuff cotton balls inside the condom or glove.

You can also get the party started in the shower together, which serves as foreplay and gets you both all nice and clean for the big show.

Youll probably need to try a few different moves and experiment with speed and pressure to find what feels best.

Here are some techniques to try, whether youre using fingers or toys.

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Self Prostate Exam For Prostatic Hyperplasia

Clinically we divided prostatic hyperplasia into three gradients, indicating the severity of benign prostatic hyperplasia disease. So, in our daily lives, how to perform self prostate exam? What are the evaluation criteria?

According to the severity of the disease, each disease can be divided into mild, moderate and severe, benign prostatic hyperplasia is with no exception. So what are the typical symptoms for mild, moderate and severe prostatic hyperplasia? How can we male patients to perform self prostate exam?

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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 .

What Happens During A Digital Rectal Exam

17 Best images about Self

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.

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Living With Prostate Cancer

As prostate cancer usually progresses very slowly, you can live for decades without symptoms or needing treatment.

Nevertheless, it can affect your life. As well as the possible side effects of treatment, a diagnosis of prostate cancer can understandably make you feel anxious or depressed.

You may find it beneficial to talk about the condition with your family, friends, a GP and other people with prostate cancer.

Financial support is also available if prostate cancer reduces your ability to work.

What Tests Detect Prostate Cancer Early

Because prostate cancer cant necessarily be detected at home, its a good idea to learn about the tests that provide early detection. Keep in mind that these tests cant decipher whether or not you have prostate cancer and, following the test, your doctor will most likely suggest a prostate biopsy. If youre wondering how to check for prostate cancer at home, your best bet is to leave it to your health care professional.

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Why Is Active Surveillancethe Wait

We utilize active surveillance for men who have been diagnosed with a low-grade prostate cancer. The reason we monitor low-grade prostate cancer using active surveillance, rather than treating it aggressively, is that there are cancers that dont need treatment.

With low-grade prostate cancer, youre more likely to have problems from the treatment than from the prostate cancer. Any treatment we do for prostate cancer is going to affect a mans urinary and sexual function. It may affect it a little bitor a lot. With this type of prostate cancer, we can tell you now that theres very little likelihood the cancer is going to cause you any problems. We have a good and growing amount of evidence that low-grade prostate cancers, on average, progress very slowly and do not appear to spread to the lymph nodes. Active surveillance lets us detect higher grade disease and treat it at that point.

For us to do anything and treat it is going to change your quality of life. I think thats a powerful thing.

How To Self Test For Prostate Cancer

Prostate Cancer Treatment

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.

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If You Do Choose Screening Should You Have A Rectal Examination

Doctors have a hackneyed saying about rectal examinations: if you dont put your finger in it, youll put your foot in it.

The point is that we can miss important things by not doing a rectal examination. This can be true for some people with symptoms, such as rectal bleeding. But on balance, it seems its not the case for prostate cancer screening.

We need to decide where to set the threshold for what is considered normal for diagnostic tests. This is the case for the PSA blood test, where traditionally we use a cut-off of four nanograms per millilitre as dividing normal from abnormal .

Set the cut-off too low, close to zero, and well send nearly all men for biopsies that are largely unnecessary. Set the cut-off too high and well miss many prostate cancers. Unfortunately, theres no magic threshold that perfectly divides the men with the cancers we want to catch from the men we neednt trouble.

Does the digital rectal examination improve matters when added to the PSA test? Not really. The rectal examination does pick up slightly more cancers, but these seem to be mostly the less aggressive cancers, less likely to be the ones we need worry about. In doing so, it causes more false alarms, by creating two or more false positive results for every cancer found.

Why would we want to perform an examination that many men find unpleasant when we could instead simply interpret the blood test a little differently?

Who Should Get A Prostate Exam

Starting at age 50, all men should discuss prostate cancer screening with their doctor. The American Cancer Society advises men at higher risk to have this conversation at age 45.

Youre considered to have an increased risk if youre African-American or if a first-degree relative had prostate cancer before age 65. If more than one first-degree relative had prostate cancer before age 65, you might want to consider beginning prostate cancer screening even earlier.

The ACS estimates there will be about 26,120 men will die from it.

Prostate cancer is easier to treat before it spreads. However, some prostate cancers are so slow-growing that they dont always require treatment. A lot depends on your age and other factors.

Discuss your risk factors with your doctor, and ask if you should have a prostate exam as part of your yearly checkup.

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Questions You Might Want To Ask Your Gp

  • Do I need to see a specialist? Is it urgent?
  • When will I see them?
  • Where will I see them?
  • Will I find out about my appointments by post or telephone?
  • Do I need tests? What will they involve?
  • How long should I expect to wait?
  • Where can I find out more about tests?
  • Do I have to do anything in preparation for this test?
  • When will I get the results and who will tell me?

Your GP might not be able to answer all of your questions. They will tell you what they can at this point. Not knowing is difficult to cope with and can make you anxious.

Speaking to a friend or relative about how you feel might help.

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