[deepwave]

Get the PSA test if your over 45. Just get it. I just went through it as well as a biopsy because the PSA looked fishy. I did the PSA as well as the Free PSA test. I then had a 12-needle core biopsy, which, while unpleasant, let me know I was OK. I need to, as do all men my age (almost 50), get tested yearly. It's not a joke. It's tough to get men into the doctor for anything unless they feel they're dying. Guys, get tested, especially if you have a wife and children. You owe it to them, if not yourself.

A PSA test takes 5 minutes. It's a simple blood draw and you learn the results in two days. Like ovarian cancer for women, prostate cancer is the "whispering death". It's often too late if it's metastasized after it's detected, then your chances are even less. Get the test, doubly so if you are a family man.

[x1798DE]

My understanding is that the current thought on the utility of a PSA test is mixed at best, because prostate cancer takes a long time to actually threaten your health, so above a certain age, even if you have prostate cancer you're likely to die of something else before the prostate cancer kills you. It's definitely not as simple as "seriously, just get it."

[deepwave]

If you have family history, get the test over 45. If you have urination hesitancy, which led me to get tested, get the test. Prostate symptoms can lead to all manner of things besides the dreaded cancer diagnosis. BPH, urination trouble, impotence, chronic pain. None of these are life threatening, but try living with them. They cut into a man's quality of life.

[droopyEyelids]

There are many different cancers we lump under the phrase "prostate cancer". Most of them are benign, and will not affect anyone's life before they die of another cause.

The effects of treating prostate cancer are awful 100% of the time, though. From incontinence to impotence, and a lengthy recovery at a time when your body struggles to keep up with the normal demands of life.

[aub3bhat]

I completely agree with you.

Public health "consensus" is driven often by cost considerations and in this case it might as well be damned. Unlike things like "vaccine refusal", here there is no enormous cost to the society, if more people decide to get tested. If one wants to get a PSA test, he should without worrying about recommendations.

[deepwave]

I have no idea why my comment is being modded down. Guys who disdain hearing good advice and the truth are beyond me...

[unclenoriega]

I didn't downvote you, and I can't speak for others, but for me, people giving general, emphatic advice based solely on limited personal experience is really annoying and often counterproductive. Perhaps you have further evidence to back up your claims, but you didn't cite it.

[cowsandmilk]

because public health consensus[1] currently disagrees with your "good advice".

[1] https://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/Page/Document/...

[sctb]

> Please resist commenting about being downvoted. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html