What, we hear you cry, is one of those? Well, it’s a simple home blood test that allows men to check for raised PSA levels (that’s Prostate Specific Antigen, for all you non-doctors out there) in their system. The presence of higher than usual levels of PSA, which can only be pointed out by either doing a prostate home test or getting your doctor to do a blood test for you, indicates an enlarged prostate – which is, of course, the first sign of encroaching prostate cancer.
Before we jump the gun to much, it must be pointed out that the at home psa test, which will certainly show if there are higher than usual PSA levels in the blood, does not represent a final indicator of cancer. There are a couple of dozen other complaints and causes that can lead to raised PSA: medication; a prostate infection (that’s similar to a female urinary infection); ageing; and even prolonged exercise or recent sexual activity.
So what, then, is the point? For a sex that has a deeply-ingrained traditionalist attitude to its own health (that’s a polite way of saying “stupid”), how can a psa home test kit, which is so inconclusive, be appealing? In the simple language we men often appreciate, because it costs hardly anything (less than a round of drinks, if you have more than three friends) and could stop you dying. The at home psa test kit could point out all sorts of things – like recent sex or a massive run – but none of those matter. What matters, and what matters alone, is this: unless you go to the doctors and get him or her to check you over, the at home prostate exam is the only way you will ever know whether or not you might have prostate cancer. Unless, that is, you just ignore the whole possibility until you wake up dead.
Put like that, the question to buy or not to buy an at home psa test, becomes a slightly different ask: i.e., when do I get it? The answer is now. Get online, order one up and get yourself in tune with your own health. You never know, that round of drinks could give you an extra 10 years.
