It’s not one of my lighter pieces, but my prostate gave its life for it.
My thanks to The Guardian and its insightful and talented editor Estelle Tang for publishing this piece. Here’s the link.
I hope that it inspires anyone with a prostate or anyone who loves someone who has one to at least consider getting a PSA test. No multiple-choice or essay questions are involved in this test. They just take an additional sample of your blood, and you’re done.
Live Long and Prostate
LivingEd 
Dear Ed,
Thanks for this. Glad you are well.
Howard
👍Sent from my iPad
Thank you Ed. I will ask my doc.
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This is a great article, but I think you make 2 mistakes-
1. You over dramatize the unpleasantness of digital rectal exams, biopsy procedure to the point where it just might discourage some people from choosing to have these important diagnostic procedures done.
2. You conclude that men should have prostate screening between the ages of 50-70, which ignores the importance of continuing to screen from 70 and beyond. Same mistake so called expert medical professional have made.
Had I not insisted on PSA testing when I was 77, I probably would not have survived the prostate cancer that was found before it was able to spread elsewhere.
You make good points. Thank you for taking the time to comment.
I agree that PSA tests should continue past 70. There are a significant percentage of doctors, however, who disagree. As for DRE’s and a prostate biopsy, the latter in my experience was decidedly unpleasant. While not sugar coating it, I hope my broader point was clear – prostate cancer is worse.