Quote:
Originally Posted by Kenzie
Do they have an lower age limit for the tests? I hit 40 back in October and know most GPs are reluctant to test younger people.
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Just go and ask your GP for a PSA (prostate-specific antigen) test. The nurse will take a blood sample and it will be reviewed, and you'll prob have a DRE (finger up your ****) too.
The popular conception is that PC is an 'old man's disease'. It isn't. It affects all ages.
My own story should be a cautionary tale. My dad died in 2015 at age 82 with prostate cancer (it wasn't the PC that killed him, but he had it and was treated for it). I was 50 at the time. I asked my GP if I should have a PSA test, because of the direct family link. The GP said, and I quote: "
Oh, you don't need to worry about that for a few years yet."
Stupidly, I listened to him. 4 years later, in Jan 2019 at age 54, I thought I'd have a general health MOT (cholestrol, all that stuff) and asked for my PSA to be tested at the same time. I'd had no symptoms
at all apart from an
occasional increased urgency to pee, which I just put down to age.
I had an urgent call from the surgery at 8am the next morning. My PSA was 33 (high). Biopsies and scans showed advanced, inoperable PC that had spread outside the prostate with metastases in the lower bowel, pelvis, spine, ribs etc.
I was fast-tracked into treatment (chemo, then radiotherapy in 2019) and was given an expectancy of 3 to 5 years. I'm still live and kicking, just getting a back problem caused by one of the secondaries on my spine, but hopefully getting that sorted soon.
The moral of the story is simple:
get tested and do not be fobbed off. Insist on it.