Men’s Health Tips: Questions to Ask Yourself

Focus­ing on pre­ven­tive care can help you live a longer and hap­pi­er, health­i­er life. Annu­al vis­its are a time to talk with your provider about rec­om­mend­ed screen­ings, fam­i­ly his­to­ry, and any con­cerns. It’s easy to put off these vis­its, but they can help you in the long-term.

Call your pri­ma­ry care provider today to sched­ule an appoint­ment. Don’t have a pri­ma­ry care provider? No wor­ries, we have you cov­ered. Learn more about our Pri­ma­ry Care Team.

In addi­tion, our Urol­o­gy Team has answers to ques­tions you may have been ask­ing your­self about your need to be screened for prostate cancer.

Men’s Health Tips: Ques­tions to Ask Yourself 

Ques­tion #1: Are you being screened for prostate cancer? 

If the answer is no, do you know if you should be? Our QMG Urol­o­gy team rec­om­mends speak­ing to your pri­ma­ry care provider about your spe­cif­ic needs, as the screen­ing age may vary based on risk fac­tors, fam­i­ly his­to­ry, and your health. Based on that, screen­ing for prostate can­cer can start as ear­ly as 50 and, for some, screen­ing may be rec­om­mend­ed in your 40s.

“Prostate can­cer is the most com­mon type of can­cer in men except for minor skin can­cers. Most prostate can­cer is slow grow­ing and no ear­ly symp­toms. Ear­ly detec­tion is the best way to stop spread,” shared Dr. Knudson.

Dr. Schnei­der added, ​“A lot of the farm­ers in our com­mu­ni­ty go under screened and under­diag­nosed, or even worse late diag­nosed. Per­son­al­ly, I’m find peo­ple with late stage can­cer and that’s real­ly sad for me. Patients need to be their own advo­cate and ask them­selves, ​‘Am I being appro­pri­ate­ly screened for prostate can­cer?’ You should real­ly have that con­ver­sa­tion with your doctor.”

Ques­tion #2: Are you in the bath­room a lot?

More than 50% of men over the age of 50 suf­fer from benign pro­sta­t­ic hyper­pla­sia (BPH), also known as an enlarged prostate. BPH is a com­mon con­di­tion. Although it is a benign con­di­tion and unre­lat­ed to prostate can­cer, it can great­ly affect a man’s qual­i­ty of life.

BPH is a con­di­tion in which the prostate enlarges as men get old­er. The con­di­tion affects near­ly 40 mil­lion Amer­i­cans and over 500 mil­lion aging men world­wide. Over 40% of men in their 50s and over 70% of men in their 60s have BPH.

As the prostate enlarges, it press­es on and blocks the ure­thra, caus­ing both­er­some uri­nary symp­toms such as:

• Fre­quent need to uri­nate both day and night
• Weak or slow uri­nary stream
• A sense that you can­not com­plete­ly emp­ty your bladder
• Dif­fi­cul­ty or delay in start­ing urination
• Urgent feel­ing of need­ing to urinate
• A uri­nary stream that stops and starts

“If you’re expe­ri­enc­ing symp­toms, it’s impor­tant to be assessed by your doc­tor,” Dr. Knud­son said. ​“This assess­ment includes a basic workup to check urine, assess blad­der emp­ty­ing with a blad­der scan or ultra­sound, and check a PSA in some men.”

The QMG Urol­o­gy team offers a wide vari­ety of treat­ment options for men who suf­fer from BPH. 

Ques­tion #3: Are you tired a lot?

Have you gained weight despite a healthy lifestyle? Is your love life with your part­ner not what it used to be? If you answered yes to some or all of these ques­tions, you may have low testosterone.

“Anoth­er part of men’s health that goes under­treat­ed is testos­terone man­age­ment. There are a lot men out there liv­ing out their life fatigued, obese, decrease libido, etc.,” said Dr. Schnei­der. ​“That’s some­thing that if they were screened for, we could help. Nor­mal testos­terone is healthy for man and low testos­terone is not healthy for a man.”