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What Are The Prostate Cancer Symptoms?
One of the biggest problems in treating cancer of the
prostate gland is that it is very difficult to keep a trace on its early
symptoms. The symptoms develop really slowly and can be confused with
symptoms experienced at the outset of other diseases for men in the
vulnerable age group.
Conventional medicine
agrees that early detection provides the best chance of surviving cancer
of the prostate gland is by prevention the spread of the disease. Males
who fall into the category of likely sufferers are between the ages
of 40 and 70. However men in the sixties are most vulnerable. Strangely
enough, African Americans are two and a half more times likely to suffer
from the disease than Caucasians. The disease is also reckoned to be
hereditary. Taking all these factors
into account, people who fall into any form of risk category can save
themselves and their loved ones a lot of pain, discomfort and anxiety
by attending an annual prostate exam. These tests come in the form of
a prostate specific antigen (PSA) test or a digital exam. The PSA test is less efficient
but much pleasanter. In this test the clinic will check the level of
PSA in the blood. Normally men have relatively low levels of PSA in
their blood; a sign of the outset of prostate cancer is increased levels
of PSA in the blood stream. PSA levels alone do not give doctors enough
information to distinguish between benign prostate conditions and cancer.
However, the doctor will take the result of the PSA test into account
when deciding whether to check further for signs of prostate cancer.
Proven to be more efficient
and certainly more "hands on" is the digital exam. In this instance, the doctor will physically check the state of the patient's prostate by inserting his (gloved and oiled) finger into the patient's rectum. This will allow the doctor to thoroughly probe the prostate gland and check for any signs of irregularities in it. This method is much more efficient that the PSA test. However it is not 100%
full proof. Some 30% of cancerous tumors form inside the prostate gland
and the doctor is unable to make contact with them. If the disease remains un-diagnosed then the cancer sufferer will begin to experience the first stages of the symptoms that characterize the disease. The symptoms are as follows and in some kind of ascending order; 1. Getting up at night in order to urinate. 2. Feeling pressure on the bladder indicating the
need to urinate, but being unable to. 3. Experiencing urinal incontinence. 4. The flow of urine is very weak. 5. Interruptions in the flow of urine. 6. Experiencing a burning pain during urination. 7. Difficulty in achieving an erection. 8. Difficulty in maintaining an erection. 9. Experiencing pain in a sexual ejaculation. 10. Signs of blood in urine. 11. Signs of blood in semen. 12. Experiencing frequent pain or stiffness in the
lower back, hips or upper thighs. At the first sign of any or all of these symptoms
occurring, a visit to the doctor or local clinic is highly recommended.
And sooner rather than later. Males, who begin to show some of the symptoms of
the disease, will firstly undergo either the blood tests or a digital
rectal exam. If the doctor carrying out the exam reaches the conclusion
that their may be a cancerous growth on the prostate gland then he will
order an immediate biopsy.
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