Guest guest Posted February 5, 2010 Report Share Posted February 5, 2010 Hey Older Guy, I am 63 and in a similar situation with you. Been on Andogel for four years and now have a PSA of 4.2. You should ask your Doc to check your Estradiol level. Mine was high and high E can drive up PSA. I stopped taking DHEA and my E went down. You should also ask your Doc to test you for " free PSA. " A free psa reading of 25% or more means cancer is unlikely. Mine came at 21% and even that is good. PSA is very controversial and has caused tens of thousands of men and their families incredible anxiety and fear of dying from prostate cancer. The problem is PSA is not very accurate. One can have a very low PSA and still have a rapidly spreading, deadly cancer. On the converse, many men have unbelievably high PSA with no cancer. Some doctors tell their patients to not even bother with PSA at all because most aging men will get prostate cancer if they live long enuf. The good news is that about 90% of prostate cancers are very slow growing and men usually die from something else like heart attack, diabetes or just old age. In fact, if one is diagnosed with prostate cancer, he only has a 3% chance of dying from it. Pretty good odds. Then there is the biopsy. They stick a probe and a camera up your butt and inject a numbing chemical into the wall of your rectum and the insert this tiny needle into your prostate in TWELVE different spots and pull out samples of prostate tissue to be biopsied. This test is not that accurate because if the cancer is slow growing the biopsy might not find it. In this case if your PSA is still high a year later, guess what, your Doc is gonna order another biopsy. This goes on for years for some men. If they find cancer and treat you for it many men are left incontinent and can no longer get an erection. Breast cancer is the female curse. Prostate cancer is the man curse. I am not a doctor but I am well read on this topic. There is a ton of info on the web. Just google prostate and you'll be busy for weeks. I myself am seeing my URO week after next for another PSA and free psa test. I can only hope it has gone down. I might add that Urologists are making tons of money on this PSA and Biopsy gig. Lengthy studies have sadly shown that PSA in reality has not saved any lives. Good luck, Rob Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry PSA amounts I have been on TRT for about 4 years. For the last year and a half I have been on androgel. Sincew I began the treatment my PSA numbers have increased to where it is now just above 4. To see if this is the result of a prostate infection I was put on an antibiotic. If in 4 weeks when I have another PSA and there is no change in my numbers, the doctor said I would need an ultrasound and possible taking of samples for a biopsy. Is there anyone out there who has had this happen to them and what did you choose to do afterwards. anoldernjgymguy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 5, 2010 Report Share Posted February 5, 2010 PSA what to do if you had sex 24 hrs before the blood test PSA can show on the higher side. High levels of Estradiol have done this also. I have my PSA done every 4 months and I have lost count as to how many times it was up not real high but up. The first time we did all kinds of testing even a biopsy nothing showed up and the next test was fine. Here is what I do it it shows high we wait until the next test. Even the labs mess this up. Co-Moderator Phil > From: Older Guy <anoldernjgymguy@...> > Subject: PSA amounts > > Date: Thursday, February 4, 2010, 7:58 PM > I have been on TRT for about 4 years. > For the last year and a half I have been on androgel. Sincew > I began the treatment my PSA numbers have increased to where > it is now just above 4. To see if this is the result of a > prostate infection I was put on an antibiotic. If in 4 > weeks when I have another PSA and there is no change in my > numbers, the doctor said I would need an ultrasound > and possible taking of samples for a biopsy. > > Is there anyone out there who has had this happen to them > and what did you choose to do afterwards. > > anoldernjgymguy > > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 5, 2010 Report Share Posted February 5, 2010 I agree - from what I have read and Drs. have said its not so much the value as the change in the value. Once you get above 4 it is a flag that something could be wrong. I would get a second test soon and see if it continues to increase. If it does you could have issues. Say it is 4.2, then that would not be a significant increase. 5 for example would suggest something is changing. Most prostate cancers are slow growing but there are some that are fast. A change in PSA could indicate that something is going on.  Remember we are not Drs. here but only share information that will help you make an educated decision about your health.  Arkansas > From: Older Guy <anoldernjgymguy> > Subject: PSA amounts > > Date: Thursday, February 4, 2010, 7:58 PM > I have been on TRT for about 4 years. > For the last year and a half I have been on androgel. Sincew > I began the treatment my PSA numbers have increased to where > it is now just above 4. To see if this is the result of a > prostate infection I was put on an antibiotic.  If in 4 > weeks when I have another PSA and there is no change in my > numbers, the doctor said I would need an ultrasound > and possible taking of samples for a biopsy. > > Is there anyone out there who has had this happen to them > and what did you choose to do afterwards. > > anoldernjgymguy > > >    > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 5, 2010 Report Share Posted February 5, 2010 I am sixty-five years old. I stated TRT last August. Originally, I was using Androgel @ 4 pumps daily. Recently, mainly because of the cost of Androgel, I've changed to Testosterone Cypionate injections @ 300 mg once every three weeks. I'll be self injecting this @ 100 mg each week, either next week or the week after, depending on if I crash in the third week from my last three week injection. During the course of this treatment, I've had my numbers checked about four times. Each time my PSA numbers increased some. After my last lab results, my doctor called me to speak with me about having my prostate biopsied. I've had this done in the past. It isn't the most pleasant experience. I wasn't looking forward to doing it again. Fortunately, I may not have to subject myself to this after all. My doctor and I may have the mystery of my climbing PSA numbers figured out. He thought my PSA had climbed from .10 to 3.2 because if the TRT. As it turns out, we also decided I'd cease taking Finasteride, switching to Sal Palmetto instead. Once I reminded him of this, he seemed relieved. I briefly panicked over the thought of having to discontinue the TRT. > > I have been on TRT shots for around 10 years, my PSA has gone from 3 to 4.2 over that time, they decided to check further and I had a rectal exam and they said the prostate was enlarged but not unusual for my age (76) and said we would just keep monitoring it for any further change, otherwise not to worry at this stage. > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 6, 2010 Report Share Posted February 6, 2010 ? Rob? All?-- Not to give the urologists and endos too much credit, but there is general recognition among most experts that the PSA has flaws, and improved tests are in the works--though how hard they're working on them,who knows? (I think there is already something called an enhanced PSA, but don't know anything, really, about it.) A year ago, I had a PSA of 20, which terrified me, but the biopsy was negative and the number has gradually come down every 3-4 months or so, about 3-4 points each time. Was at 11.7 or so at Duke in late October, and am about to get latest results. The best explanation seems to be that my prostatitis created a level of inflammation that raised the PSA sky-high (though I've heard of PSAs going into the thousands, which boggles me.) At the same time, the biopsy is hardly infallible either. If they take 10 core samples, they still may happen to miss one or more very localized places where cancer cells are present. So it all comes down to probabilities, but we need to have the odds increased in our favor of course. Yes, there are lots of doctors who go on the assumption that T therapy causes cancer; and others who believe that T therapy (only) causes existing cancer cells to grow and become an immediate cause for treatment. As long as the only early way to detect cancer depends on biopsies, which are only valid to the extent that the needles (theoretically) happen to hit every area where there might already be cancer cells, we and they can never know for sure if cancer was present before starting T therapy or not. So it comes down to what a doctor may conclude from his experience with a limited number of patients, or what he has read. At the moment, T-therapy is a crap-shoot in this respect. What is needed, for one thing--and I think they're working on it--is one or more blood tests that will detect a substance that is unique to prostate cancer from the very start. ________________________________________________________________________________\ ______ > > Gentlemen, > There are a lot of Doctors out there that believe T therapy causes prostate cancer. From what I have read from reliable sources, this not true at all. In fact, many men with prostate cancer are found to have low levels of T. I have read that if one has an existing pr Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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