I just received a PSA result and i'm so worried

I wouldn't be too worried about that result. There are so many things other than cancer which could cause elevated PSA. Please now read to the end of this post before opening a bottle of wine.

Obviously any article on any disease should finish: "... and if you have x,y,z symptoms see your doctor" . The truth is 99% of prostate cancer has no symptoms, so the journalist is left with an article which can't have the standard ending, and no editor is going to let an article get published which doesn't follow the narrative, he certainly doesn't want readers phoning up and saying "well what are the symptoms?". The journalist thus clutches at straws and pesters a urologist and forces her to come up with a symptom, so she reluctantly says "in advanced cases the symptoms are poor urine flow, etc..." the editor then dumps the 'advanced cases' because readers 'get confused' by science.

So your urine problems are almost certainly to do with your prostate (probably inflammation) and if it is inflammation, then that is almost certainly the cause of your elevated PSA.

If prostate cancer were causing your urine problems, it would be so advanced that your PSA would be in the hundreds, or thousands.

A lot of men including myself are diagnosed with cancer after having problems peeing. You might think that proves that it is a genuine early symptom of prostate cancer. Well it isn't. Nearly ever man's prostate once over 60 will have a little bit of cancer. The only time any doctor does any examination of a prostate is when a man comes in with peeing problems, which generally start in his 50s. As peeing problems is the only reason to examine a prostate, and most of them have (insignificant) cancer. It is no wonder that people think there is a connection. Every time I look out the window the sky is blue, but the sky isn't blue cause I'm looking out of windows. Much more succinctly "correlation is not causation".

Now back to your case. Yes we have had cases of people with PSA of about 5 who had cancer, and plenty who didn't, we have had people in the early 50s with cancer. (I was 53 years old, PSA 25, and about 95% cancer in prostate). We have had men with urine problems with cancer and men without urine problems with cancer.

You definitely need to see a urologist and sort out your urine problems. They may find cancer as well, but it is not likely to be serious yet, and it is very treatable when caught early.

You may as well open the wine now, not to celebrate, just because everything seems better after a bottle or two of wine.

Edited by member 24 Nov 2024 at 22:43  | Reason: Not specified

Hold your horses! Just take things one step, one test at a time.

I am in the same boat as you, raised PSA picked up by routine blood test. You will need a second blood test to check the first one wasn't a fluke.

Wait until that's been do enough to think about what cones next. 

Looking at all the possible outcomes will blow a fuse. Especially looking at treatments and side effects. You are nowhere near that yet. 

I was advised here to take things just one test at a time and it's good advice.

I had to have an MRI which came back requiring a biopsy.

That was done last Tuesday so I am awaiting the result in the next week or so. Only then will I hope to have some concrete news about what I might or might not be dealing with. 

Expending energy worrying before then is futile.

Stop jumping ahead and seeing only the worst outcome. I know we are all different and deal with things in our own way. But you will make yourself believe you have cancer before the tests are even done. 

Trust the people on here, they have been through it or, like me and you, are currently going through the mill.

It's not an easy journey but you can make it far better by managing your worry.