PSA can be produced in tiny amounts by other organs in the body, including the adrenal glands, the Cowper's gland, etc., so in theory, cycling could raise the PSA by a very small amount even in a man with no prostate but only in the immediate few hours and not two days later.
Here is my post on another thread a couple of days ago:-
It is a misunderstanding Chris, which has become over-hyped by some.
For men with a prostate who are being closely monitored (for example, on AS trying to pinpoint when to move to radical treatment) it is worth noting that orgasm and rectal stimulation of the prostate can raise the PSA for up to 24 hours and cycling may raise the PSA for up to 4 hours. Even then, the estimate is that orgasm may raise the PSA by 10% and cycling by less than that. So it makes sense, if the trend is crucial, to try to behave in the same way before each test ... have sex or don't have sex, cycle or don't cycle but try to be consistent so that any small changes in PSA aren't misinterpreted.
The jury is out on whether cycling can raise the PSA in a man with a fried prostate but even if it could, would it really matter to you? If your current PSA is 1.0, you cycle this morning and have your PSA test this afternoon and the result is 1.05 could you be absolutely certain that you hadn't done anything before the previous test that could affect the reading?
John tries to be consistent about his behaviour at the time of each test; he cycles regularly, goes to the gym (well, he would do usually), has his blood test early in the morning, etc. If the next PSA is the same as last time, should we worry that it should have been lower because he hasn't been to the gym recently? Do the things that you enjoy and are good for your physical & mental health and at test time, remember that very small variations are not significant whereas a solid upward trend might be.
Edited by member 01 Jul 2020 at 11:40
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Quote:Quote:
So my current thinking is that I shall probably be cycling to my first post-op PSA test appointment in a few weeks 😂
Alex
Are you confident cycling will not do damage to the new joint ?
Thanks Chris
I've been told I can cycle after 6 weeks. This will be after more than 6 weeks. It's half a mile to the GP surgery. I'd say, probably yes. But in any case, after what Lyn said above, I'll probably walk anyway. 😄
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I would say not, if you don't have a prostate.
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Originally Posted by: Online Community MemberI am 54, 2 years since RP for Gleeson’s 7/4+3 prostate ca. Had follow up psa this week and realized I cycled 2 days before psa test. I know that’s a potential issue if u have a prostate, I don’t. Will the cycling affect my psa result ? So far they haven’t been detectable.
From what I understand of it, it's only the prostate cells and prostate cancer cells that produce PSA. Cycling stimulates the prostate (and presumably any cancer cells within it), as does DRE or having an ejaculation, causing more PSA production.
So if you have no prostate and hopefully no cancer cells to be stimulated, then cycling shouldn't make any difference whatsoever. I've recently been thinking about this myself and come to that conclusion.
So my current thinking is that I shall probably be cycling to my first post-op PSA test appointment in a few weeks 😂
_____ Two cannibals named Ectomy and Prost, all alone on a Desert island. Prost was the strongest, so Prost ate Ectomy. |
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PSA can be produced in tiny amounts by other organs in the body, including the adrenal glands, the Cowper's gland, etc., so in theory, cycling could raise the PSA by a very small amount even in a man with no prostate but only in the immediate few hours and not two days later.
Here is my post on another thread a couple of days ago:-
It is a misunderstanding Chris, which has become over-hyped by some.
For men with a prostate who are being closely monitored (for example, on AS trying to pinpoint when to move to radical treatment) it is worth noting that orgasm and rectal stimulation of the prostate can raise the PSA for up to 24 hours and cycling may raise the PSA for up to 4 hours. Even then, the estimate is that orgasm may raise the PSA by 10% and cycling by less than that. So it makes sense, if the trend is crucial, to try to behave in the same way before each test ... have sex or don't have sex, cycle or don't cycle but try to be consistent so that any small changes in PSA aren't misinterpreted.
The jury is out on whether cycling can raise the PSA in a man with a fried prostate but even if it could, would it really matter to you? If your current PSA is 1.0, you cycle this morning and have your PSA test this afternoon and the result is 1.05 could you be absolutely certain that you hadn't done anything before the previous test that could affect the reading?
John tries to be consistent about his behaviour at the time of each test; he cycles regularly, goes to the gym (well, he would do usually), has his blood test early in the morning, etc. If the next PSA is the same as last time, should we worry that it should have been lower because he hasn't been to the gym recently? Do the things that you enjoy and are good for your physical & mental health and at test time, remember that very small variations are not significant whereas a solid upward trend might be.
Edited by member 01 Jul 2020 at 11:40
| Reason: Not specified
"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Soren Kierkegaard
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Originally Posted by: Online Community MemberPSA can be produced in tiny amounts by other organs in the body, including the adrenal glands, the Cowper's gland, etc., so in theory, cycling could raise the PSA by a very small amount even in a man with no prostate but only in the immediate few hours and not two days later.
Very useful. Good to know that. Thanks Lyn. 😄
_____ Two cannibals named Ectomy and Prost, all alone on a Desert island. Prost was the strongest, so Prost ate Ectomy. |
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Quote:
So my current thinking is that I shall probably be cycling to my first post-op PSA test appointment in a few weeks 😂
Alex
Are you confident cycling will not do damage to the new joint ?
Thanks Chris
Edited by member 01 Jul 2020 at 12:59
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Quote:Quote:
So my current thinking is that I shall probably be cycling to my first post-op PSA test appointment in a few weeks 😂
Alex
Are you confident cycling will not do damage to the new joint ?
Thanks Chris
I've been told I can cycle after 6 weeks. This will be after more than 6 weeks. It's half a mile to the GP surgery. I'd say, probably yes. But in any case, after what Lyn said above, I'll probably walk anyway. 😄
_____ Two cannibals named Ectomy and Prost, all alone on a Desert island. Prost was the strongest, so Prost ate Ectomy. |
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Walking is quite dangerous - particularly if you live on a bus route 😂
"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Soren Kierkegaard
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😂😂I'll make sure to wear clean underwear. (Never did quite get why people think that matters if you get hit by a bus. You'd probably crap yourself anyway. 😂)
_____ Two cannibals named Ectomy and Prost, all alone on a Desert island. Prost was the strongest, so Prost ate Ectomy. |
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Bit of thread necromancy here as I have a new data point in this discussion that came up accidentally.
I haven't posted on here for a few years as I had to have a break from these forums. It wasn't doing me good dwelling on it all. I found forums are great for asking for and giving help and advice and sharing information, but hanging out here was making me focus too much on PC and what can go wrong.
So I spent a lot more time doing things. Lots of cycling, became quite an avid Zwift racer (>500 races now) and that's relevant to the new data point.
My PSA since surgery has been increasing very slowly. Started at 0.01 in August 2020 and reached 0.05 by the end of 2022 - 2.5 years later. 0.08 in October 2024. Then I found myself "not wanting to know" in June 2025, so I skipped that one and fast-forwarded to November 2025. Got my PSA blood done on a Tuesday afternoon at 1430.
Graphing all the points and linear regression led me to believe I would likely hit recurrence threshold of 0.2 some time around 2028. (Obvs cell division is not linear, it's exponential, but the start of an exponential graph is usually quite linear.) So we were looking at a doubling time of "about 2 years".
So I fairly shat myself when the result came back for November 2025 of 0.2. Oh Bollocks. That's the biochem recurrence threshold. So that triggered a PSMA-PET scan (December), an MRI scan (November) and an oncologist appointment (this week).
At the onco appointment I made a comment that "I would have repeated the PSA test before spending 3 grand on a scan" and the oncologist seemed to agree, but I think that was Urology's call. Anyway we went through the SRT stuff and I signed a consent form expecting to kickstart that process. Planning scan in 6 weeks then 20 fractions starting a few weeks after that. But let's get another PSA for now and see what's happening.
So off to the blood draw and next day the onco phones me to say "PSA is 0.1". I wasn't hugely surprised and neither was she.🤣 We've decided to hold off on zapping me and get another PSA in 6 weeks time and take it from there.
So if 0.1 is correct right now, and 0.2 was an outlier, my doubling time is 3 years from 0.05 to 0.1, which is encouraging.
OK - so what's my point? Simply this. Although I KNEW cycling can affect PSA levels in men with a prostate, I really doubted it could happen in post prostatectomy patients with tiny PSA levels. So even though I knew it wasn't the ideal thing to do, I did a 1 hour hard Zwift Racing League race at 1030 on that Tuesday in November, 4 hours before my blood draw.
It's very anecdotal, and I won't even know until we see my PSA progression, it looks like that hard Zwift race temporarily doubled my PSA level. I only remembered I'd done this after my onco phone call yesterday. For those of you who do YT, I streamed the race and it can be seen here...
https://www.youtube.com/live/lkgh-YLsbeI?si=D04-qj-oTnFEbmOa&t=320
2 very hard 5 minute smashy climbs. Anyway it's an anecdotal study of n=1. So take it for what it is. A single data point that may or may not mean anything. 😂
_____ Two cannibals named Ectomy and Prost, all alone on a Desert island. Prost was the strongest, so Prost ate Ectomy. |
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Alex, indeed it may not mean anything but I guess it might be better to have future PSA tests before doing a bike ride.
For what it is worth I (an occasional fair weather cyclist) ended up with biochemical recurrence after surgery, but my PSA levels bounced around between 0.1 and 0.2 for a good year before actually triggering action.
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You sure they haven't used a PSA accurate to 1 decimal place? Your scores were all to 2 places then they suddenly changed to 1 decimal place. If your PSA is hovering around 0.15 it could be rounded to 0.2 or 0.1.
Cycling after RP has very little effect on PSA
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Originally Posted by: Online Community MemberAlex, indeed it may not mean anything but I guess it might be better to have future PSA tests before doing a bike ride.
For what it is worth I (an occasional fair weather cyclist) ended up with biochemical recurrence after surgery, but my PSA levels bounced around between 0.1 and 0.2 for a good year before actually triggering action.
Oh yes. It's a given that you are supposed to not ride before a PSA test. I think I got too blase or just plain overlooked it. I now remember being aware of it and thinking "should I rearrange this blood draw?" and deciding not to.
My oncologist said "you will have to have this at some point" but it's been three years from 0.05 to 0.1 (and 5.5 since surgery) so it doesn't seem to be all that urgent. Will be interesting to see what the PSA is in 6 weeks.
What I'd really like to do is get TWO bloods done on the same day - one BEFORE a race and another AFTER, but it would probably confuse the hell out of everyone in the system and my medical record. 🤣 There is a study done on this in men with a prostate https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26999116/
_____ Two cannibals named Ectomy and Prost, all alone on a Desert island. Prost was the strongest, so Prost ate Ectomy. |
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I asked the oncologist if it was 0.10 or 0.1 and she said it only says 0.1, but if it was 0.12 it would say 0.12. So I think it's just poor reporting of precision. Anyway - we'll see in 6 weeks.
That's what I thought also, which is the whole point of my mentioning this here.
Edited by member 30 Jan 2026 at 08:43
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_____ Two cannibals named Ectomy and Prost, all alone on a Desert island. Prost was the strongest, so Prost ate Ectomy. |