Men's Health PSA- Can affect E-body enjoyment!

[440SE]

This is a PSA with a loosely related E-body association. After I bought my 70 Challenger I found myself with no desire or energy to work on it, I didn't even feel like driving it. Unfortunately, this applied to just about everything else in my life. I think most of the members of this group are about my age, late 40s, and older. There is a wide-spread health problem among men that needs to be addressed by medical professionals, health insurance providers and the pharmaceutical industry. There is a lot of snake oil being marketed and sold on the topic I'm about to bring up and the health industry is not providing adequate care and support for it. I'm not selling anything, I'm not a doctor, insurer, or lawyer. I'm only giving free insight based on my personal experience and hopefully helping some fellow men out there find out why they might be feeling the way they do.

What I discovered after being fed up with general practice doctors telling me nothing was wrong after complaining for years, is that I had a low testosterone (low T) problem. They told me it was just part of getting older, which I thought was BS. I had been dealing with brain fog, lack of energy, lack of interest in things I liked and physical weakness for about a decade. Doctors who are not in the urology field seem to have a common belief that a testosterone (T) level above 250 is normal.  It is not normal. Yes, it will drop as you get older and that is normal, but if your levels are below 300 and your GP doctor, cardiologist, pulmonary doc are telling you that is normal and you are in your 30s, 40s, 50s, go see a urologist. It could change your life. It has for me.

My urologist told me something very interesting in my first visit with him, and this probably will resonate with some of you.  He asked if I had ever worked shift work for an extended period or did a significant amount of international travel with big time zone differences. I worked 12 rotating shifts for six years in the military and then another three years as a DoD contractor and I've traveled to a lot to places like Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong, spending weeks there. I did this all through my twenties and into my early 40s. He told me the majority of his patients with low T issues worked shift work for long periods of time, or spent extended periods in high offset time zones numerous times. He told me air marshals have a huge problem with low T issues because of their horrible work schedules and travel. There is an impact on the body clock and the brain which affects the pituitary gland which drives T production. Again, go talk to a urologist if these problems and travel/work schedule are similar to your situation. However, you could still be suffering from low T without having ever worked shift worked or done extensive travel. Listen to your body.

Be warned though, health insurance often will not cover low T treatment medications. Check with your provider before your doctor prescribes anything to make sure you can afford it. I have discovered there are a lot of men who are on T-therapy prescribed medications, to include my best friend who has been on it for over 10 years and never told me. Men don't talk about this topic and I think it's hurting all of us. Good luck, don't suffer needlessly and remember that doctors really don't know everything. Don't settle for first or only answer on these things. I wasted over a decade of my life suffering and not getting a second opinion from an expert. Last thing, don't buy the garbage over the counter testosterone pills or listen to jack wagon endorsers like Frank Thomas who use cheesy tag lines to push pills. None of that is regulated by the FDA and even if it did do something, it would pale in comparison to actual T-therapy medications.

[blown motor]

And while you're at it get your PSA checked. Over 50% of men will get prostate cancer and a PSA test is the best indicator of your prostate health. If you catch it early it's easy to deal with. If you don't catch it, it can spread to your bones or lymph nodes and, well you what then! I started checking annually when I turned 50. We watched the PSA number increase slow over the years until it got to where I went for a biopsy and sure enough....But we caught it very early and it was easy to deal with. I don't understand why breast screening is so common place for women but PSA screening for men gets overlooked and undertalked. Two of the men I told about it after I found out I had cancer got checked and found out they had cancer. Get an appointment and get it done.

[Jay Bee]

The PSA test is a more comfortable alternative to the digital rectal exam too.

[anlauto]

Interesting first post 

[dodj]

Interesting first post 

And hopefully the last....

[captcolour]

I'll just chime in and say whenever considering medication, consult a physician and perhaps even get a 2nd opinion, particularly for longer-term treatments.  I have low-T due to cancer and chemo 12 years ago.  At the time my oncologist advised against treatment due to increased risk of stroke or heart attack.  I was 53 at the time and took his advice.

[Spikedog08]

Interesting first post 

Agreed .  .  Hmmmm

[Ns1aar]

Not so bad if you have a female doctor, they have smaller fingers

[dodj]

Not so bad if you have a female doctor, they have smaller fingers

but long nails....

[Brads70]

Not so bad if you have a female doctor, they have smaller fingers

" Moon River" 

[chargerdon]

Ok, first according to a google search 13 men out of 100 IN TOTAL will develop prostrate cancer.   That number gets misunderstood in that 40% of men over 70 will get it but then a lot of men will die before their 70.   

Im now 76 and had an enlarged prostrate in my early 70s and an enlarged prostrate can block your urine stream so its obviously a problem.   Statistically the older you get the higher the probability of an enlarged prostrate..as high as 90% for those of us lucky enough to live past 80, but that does NOT necessarily translate to cancer.   

In my case my PSA number was also up but not overly so...i believe it was around 4.0 where 2 or less is normal.   So OK Urologist also did the finger test and said, yep, your prostrate is enlarged and we can take care of that..   He prescribed Finasteride which will shrink the Prostrate.   And it did, took about 3-6 months and most of my symptoms for urination issues were gone.   (Finasteride is also prescribed for hair loss treatment...lol ).    However, my PSA number had climbed another .5 and the Doc was worried, so he did a BIOPSY...   Ouch....you lay on your side, a device is slid into your anus to stretch it further open...ouch...then he goes in with a needle and goes thru the wall and hits the Prostrate 5 or 6 times to get different spots its not horrible but definitely very uncomfortable.   Those samples are sent out, and...mine came back negative!!!!!. 

Ok, i stayed on Finasteride and asked to do yearly checkups with him...   1 year later at, 73 my PSA was up another full point to around 5.6.   Again he worried and scheduled this time an MRI to look at the prostrate.   Normally an insurance company would say no, but, he pointed out that we had done a biopsy a year earlier and so the insurance said ok.    Now, back in 2013 i had my left hip replaced, so the MRI was only able to do one side as the Titanium parts in my left hip blurred out the MRI on half of the Prostrate.   SOOO  this being inconclusiive they did ANOTHER Biopsy...ouch...   and again it came back negative....    So we discussed the rising PSA and i told him i read on the internet (Dr's hate to be told this) that a rising PSA is normal in guys over 70 and he said, yep, but it is the rate at which it has risen that bothers him.

He then looked me right in the eye and said, that we have prodded you for Biopsys twice, did MRI, and numerous psa tests and finger tests and the only thing we found was an enlarged prostrate (again normal for guys of 70) and nothing else.  He also said that the AMA recommends that for guys of 75 to ignore PSA tests and annual tests.   So...he prescribed nothing.   I said I agree and no more tests, and im quitting the Finasteride .....he said fine, but, if the problems with urinating come back we will put you back on Finasteride...and i said OK and haven't been back since.   I still get a PSA check with my annual full medical exam (im diabetic so twice a year checkups) and yes it continues to up between .25 and .5 per year.   I'm not worried and neither is my family DR.   

I guess im lucky...     I will tell you this...its partly a scam...i golf regularly with about 14 different guys over the age of 65.   In the past two years about 50% of them have had rising PSA numbers and their Drs prescribed biopsys and they all came back negative.   Better safe than sorry...but...gee wiz...   that many and nothing.   

[blown motor]

Were you awake for the biopsy? When I had mine they put me out.
My PSA was 6.8 at age 64 and I tested positive. I know that the medical field place less seriousness on the PSA number as you get older but to just ignore it, to me, sounds beyond careless. You could be 5.0 at age 70 and at 9.0 two years later but you wouldn't know if you're not checking. I'll keep getting tested.

[captcolour]

Hmmm. Something for me to think about as I get older.  65 now.  As a rectal cancer survivor (12 years), don't have those parts down there anymore to make prostate biopsy "easy".  Guess they would have to do a needle biopsy through the chest wall.  I do get PSA and CBA (rectal cancer marker) screened every year.

[57Fury440]

The best way to determine if you have prostate cancer is a pet scan. Unfortunately, most insurance companies will not pay for it and want you to get a biopsy which is not always conclusive. My PSA level is around 10 and I will be 76 in a few weeks. I had a pet scan recently and there is no sign of cancer.