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PSA alone “enough” for 62 yo man?

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Posted 3/25/2022 3:51 PM (GMT -5)
My father just passed away at 96 from complications of prostrate cancer -- he rode motorcycles from the age of 13 until 95.5, and choose his Drs based on whether they were motorcycle conversant or not. His choice, I suppose, not that my brother or I were happy about it. A very in-charge & willful man.

My point is -- even with all that, I'm unsure how to ask my 59 year old brother if he's getting DREs or not. Pretty sure he's getting PSAs, but is he any more willing than my Dad to have treatment??

My mother passed away at 54, way back in 1987, after dealing with complications of Cervical Cancer for 25 years. You'd better bet I get all my Pap Smears, Gyn Exams, DREs, Mammograms, Etc.

None of which makes those cross-gender questions any easier!
Posted 3/25/2022 5:24 PM (GMT -5)
Girlie, here are a few things I've learned over the years...
1. More men get prostate cancer in the US that women get breast cancer.
2. More men die of prostate cancer or it's complications than women die of breast cancer.
3. At it's early stages, PCa is absolutely cureable--and for those who cannot be cured, many can be at a maintenance level for many years.
4. PSA and DRE should be in every man's physical exam, every year, starting around 45-50
5. DRE is no fun. PCa is less fun.
6. I learned to look at the boxes of rubber gloves in the exam room to get an idea of how big the doc's finger is.
7. I learned to hold my breath during the DRE, and let it out slow
8. The doc probably doesn't enjoy it any more than you do
Posted 3/25/2022 10:26 PM (GMT -5)
Three times in this thread I've seen it stated that prostate cancer kills more men than breast cancer kills women, yet I find this on the CDC website:
136,084 people died of lung cancer (63,135 females and 72,949 males).
51,869 people died of colorectal cancer (23,826 females and 28,043 males).
46,774 people died of pancreatic cancer (22,495 females and 24,279 males).
42,275 females died of breast cancer.
32,707 males died of prostate cancer.
28,227 people died of liver and intrahepatic bile duct cancer (9,591 females and 18,636 males).
Am I missing something here? It appears to me that more than 10,000 women died of breast cancer (at least in 2020) than men died of prostate cancer.
Whatever the case, it isn't a contest anybody wants to win.
Posted 3/26/2022 1:12 AM (GMT -5)
This evening I asked my husband to get all his past PSA test results from the doc at his next appt.
… and a lab req for a PSA test.

We will start there.

Thank you all for your advice and experiences.
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