Yes Or No On A Biopsy?

45 year old. No family history. 3 DRE's ,normal but a little assemetrical prostate. Elevated PSA level 7, up from 3.8 3 years ago. Should I have the biopsy? Does ejaculation cause PSA to go up? 2 Urologist told me it doesn't . What's the odds of this being Prostate Cancer?

Hi,

I had a radical four years ago. My PSA went from 4.1 to 6.6 in eighteen months. Dre. found nothing.

I was 61, had a biopsy and five out of the eight samples were positive.

On the pathology reports......ie blood test results, it states that 20% of men in Canada have PCa in the normal range of their PSA results.

Most of the guys I know that have PCa, and in a couple of articles I've read........most agree that ejaculation does cause PSA to rise. In fact a Dre. exam will cause your PSA to rise.

Hope I've been some help.

Good luck..............Stan.

Another source you might read is "Guide to Surviving Prostate Cancer" by Dr; Patrick Walsh.  It is rather long, but worth studying it with something as serious as cancer.  Best of luck!!!!

 

On 4/13/2008 foxcharlie wrote:

45 year old. No family history. 3 DRE's ,normal but a little assemetrical prostate. Elevated PSA level 7, up from 3.8 3 years ago. Should I have the biopsy? Does ejaculation cause PSA to go up? 2 Urologist told me it doesn't . What's the odds of this being Prostate Cancer?

I would not cling to the hope that a suspicious PSA rise could be due to ejaculation, bicycle riding or DRE. Some think these things could influence it, but that's not been proven, which is why most doctors often do not mention it.

Various things can cause elevated PSA readings, including infection, inflamation and enlarged prostate: the prostate naturally produces PSA, and the larger it is the more PSA is produced, so size of the prostate needs to be factored in for a PSA reading to be meaningful.

Sometimes there are elevated readings for no known reason. No one knows what the odds are, but a majority of elevated PSAs in the gray area between 4 and 10 usually relate to benign causes.

You could have a "free PSA"  test, which will indicate the % of PSA from normal causes, and the probability of PC, after which you could decide about a biopsy.

 

NO. all my problems started with the biopsy,(about 10 years ago) which I regret having caved in to. 

On 4/13/2008 foxcharlie wrote:

45 year old. No family history. 3 DRE's ,normal but a little assemetrical prostate. Elevated PSA level 7, up from 3.8 3 years ago. Should I have the biopsy? Does ejaculation cause PSA to go up? 2 Urologist told me it doesn't . What's the odds of this being Prostate Cancer?

 

 

On 4/13/2008 foxcharlie wrote:

45 year old. No family history. 3 DRE's ,normal but a little assemetrical prostate. Elevated PSA level 7, up from 3.8 3 years ago. Should I have the biopsy? Does ejaculation cause PSA to go up? 2 Urologist told me it doesn't . What's the odds of this being Prostate Cancer?

 

    I had a PSA of 5.4 prior to my biopsy early in 2007. All DRE's proved negative. Before my primary care MD referred me to an urologist for further assessment, he instituted me on a course of antibiotics to rule out prostatitis as the basis for my elevated PSA. While my PSA dropped after the course of antibiotics, it was still high so my PCP referred me to an urologist for further assessment and I eventually had a needle biopsy proving positive for 2 of the cores taken. A site you might want to check out for furrther prostate biopsy info is www.mrisusa.com. The Diagnostic Center offers alot of good info and may be an option for diagnosis for you. All the best!