The Signs of Prostate Cancer

Unfortunately it is sometimes difficult to detect prostate cancer in the early stages, especially if the sufferer is elderly and symptoms etc are deemed to be age related. This is one of the reasons why Prostate cancer is referred to a silent disease because it creeps up on the sufferer who is completely unaware that he is suffering from this type of cancer.

Unfortunately it has been noted that many men do not take the subject of prostate cancer seriously. They prefer to bury their head in the sand and ignore the perils.

The sad thing is, Prostate cancer is a slow growing cancer and if caught in the early stages, there is a very good chance of recovery. There have been suggestions by some health care specialists that men should have an annual PSA test, however it has been argued that the cost of this combined with the stress caused to many men awaiting the results of these tests would not make it worth it.

Some warning signs of prostate cancer to be aware of are listed below

• A need to urinate more frequently than normal especially at night
• A feeling of needing to rush to urinate
• Difficulty when starting to urinate
• Taking a long time to finish urinating (dribbling towards the end of the flow)
• A feeling your bladder isn't empty when you have finished urinating
• A weaker flow of urine than you would normally have
• Pain upon urinating
• Blood in the urine
• Pain upon ejaculation
• Unable to maintain or get an erection
• Pain felt in the genital area
• Lower back pain
• Pain in the pelvis
• Pain in the hips

Though these symptoms can be indicative of prostate cancer, is should be remembered that other illnesses can also produce these symptoms. Investigations should be carried out to ensure the precise nature of the problem is known.

As many men can suffer from prostate cancer and not realize, there are other symptoms that can arise as the disease progresses. These occur as the disease has spread to other parts of the body

They include
• Pain in the bones of the back, neck, hips and thighs
• Unexplained weight loss
• Extreme fatigue or tiredness
• Anemia

Prostate cancer can run in families though this is fairly uncommon, however if you see a pattern emerging in your own family of prostate cancer, it is a good idea to suggest to other male members of the family to be checked out to ensure they are not susceptible. The risk within families is as follows

If you have a very close male relative such as a brother who has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, then you have a risk of contracting it yourself which is three times higher than the average male. If that brother was under sixty, then unfortunately your risk was just raised to four times higher.

Age is important when discussing prostate cancer, because if the person suffering it is fairly young, it may indicate a faulty gene running through the entire male side of the family. Unfortunately there is no test at the time of writing to distinguish this gene.