Raised PSA, worried sick

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User

Posted 02 Oct 2019 at 15:23

Hi all

I am 49 years of age and following a recent bout of shingles, my GP suggested doing blood tests, including PSA. Stupidly, I hadn't checked PSA in nearly 2 years and I found the level had risen from 2.6 to 4.2. It was rechecked a week ago and still was 4.2, though my DRE was negative. I have just made a prostate MRI appointment for 2 weeks' time followed by a biopsy if required.

I'm not in great general health, I've had night sweats for the past 20 years (!) but they seem to be getting worse over the past week. I seem to be urinating more frequently (up to 10 times a day) although the flow can be a little slow. I also have some lower back pain and sciatica, which is scaring me, though I had this many years ago and was doing some heavy lifting last week.

I am a complete nervous wreck with all these symptoms and am only sleeping maybe 2-3 hours a night. I know I should have been checking my PSA values more regularly these past couple of years but I didn't think I was at-risk.

Any help or advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

Peter

User

Posted 02 Oct 2019 at 20:03

Hi Peter,

Don't beat yourself up over PSA test - regular tests under age 50 and rare.

There's nothing much you can do until you get the scan result, and see where it takes you.

With the frequent urinating, do you drink a lot of fluids? When you pee, is it just a small amount each time? Try double voiding - basically, after peeing, wait 30 seconds or so, and see if you can go again. Keep doing this if you are getting a reasonable amount out each time, until you run out. If you are not emptying your bladder each time you pee, you increase chance of a UTI (urinary tract infection) taking hold, and that can bump up your PSA.

User

Posted 02 Oct 2019 at 20:13

Hi Andy, when I go it feels like I'm not emptying the bladder fully, will try to do as you said! Thanks, Peter

User

Posted 02 Oct 2019 at 20:36

Hi Peter,

Can't say I'd heard of a psa test until the nurse doing the blood test mentioned it. The GP said I was having a diabetes test. So having a regular psa test was never on my mind.

When you read about symptoms you discover you have them. If you had been told it might be a brain tumour you'd have a headache.

PSA 4.2 is fairly low and in most cases isn't Prostate Cancer. At least that's what the stats say although you never read on here about anyone who hasn't got it even with lower psa. I had 9.9 and told myself I'd just over 50% chance of having it.

A nurse once told me not to get ahead of myself and that I'd think every pain was something to do with PCa when I was going on about hip pains during diagnosis. It's easy saying things like that but it can help to reduce the amount of concern.

Diagnosis is a stressful time and there must be over 100,000 men a year go through it with less than half of them actually having the disease. Most of those would swap places with someone with a psa of 4.2. Although I must admit I'd never swap anything with anyone.

Let us know how you are going on by updating this thread.

Peter

Edited by member 02 Oct 2019 at 20:39 | Reason: Not specified

User

Posted 02 Oct 2019 at 20:59

Many thanks for the calming words, Peter! Will keep you posted on how it works out for me,

Peter

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