Prostate exam gay
Gay, bisexual and queer men face barriers to accessing healthcare that make it challenging to get tested for cancer. Barriers that can make participating in cancer testing challenging for men in 2SLGBTQI+ communities include:
- homophobia or biphobia
- misinformation about cancer testing needs
- a lack of 2SLGBTQI+ specific resources
- concerns about physical and sentimental safety
If you have a prostate, you should produce an informed decision about whether the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test is right for you by talking to your healthcare source about the benefits and limitations of testing, your personal risk, your standards and preferences, and what other procedures may follow.
- If you are at average risk of developing prostate cancer, consider testing from age 50.
- If you are at high risk of developing prostate cancer, contemplate testing from age 45. Black men (including men of African or Caribbean ancestry) and those with a family history of prostate cancer are considered to be at elevated risk.
Your PSA levels will determine how often you get tested. The judgment to stop testing is based on your PSA levels, age and overall health.
Find out more about prostate cancer test
Digital Rectal Exam for Men
A digital rectal exam is type of prostate cancer screening for men.
A digital rectal exam is performed so that a doctor can experience a man’s prostate gland and decide if there are any lumps or abnormalities present. The prostate is a walnut-sized organ that supplies some of the semen released during male ejaculation and is located just below the bladder and in front of the rectum.
Conditions Treated
In general, a digital rectal exam for men is part of a series of tests performed as prostate cancer reviewing. It's important to note that a digital rectal exam alone cannot provide enough information to diagnose cancer and may be used a part of a diagnostic process for other conditions, such as:
- An enlarged prostate (benign prostatic hyperplasia)
- Prostatitis
- Rectal cancer
- Prostate infections
- Fecal incontinence
- Hemorrhoids
- Rectal bleeding
Stool samples can also be collected during a digital rectal exam, which can be used to assist diagnose colon cancer.
Procedure Details
During a digital rectal exam, your doctor will lubricate h
Let’s be honest: it’s pretty difficult to get healthy men to go for a routine checkup. But it becomes even harder if that checkup requires anything … down there.
Yet, when it comes to prostate cancer, it’s the best way to diagnose the challenge early and cure it successfully.
September is Prostate Cancer Consciousness Month, and a perfect time to revisit fears and myths around the prostate, with the help of John Warren and Sylvain Côté.
John was a welder for most of his animation. Sylvain began his career as a mining exploration geologist, then continued as an airplane mechanic for 24 years.
Both are now retired and serve on the steering committee of the Prostate Cancer Support Group–Montreal and West Island.
John’s journey with prostate cancer
When he was 35, John heard a doctor on CBC Radio interpret that men should have their prostate checked regularly after turning 50. John did this faithfully. When he was 69, his PSA (Prostate-Specific Antigen blood test) score was OK, but a digital rectal exam (DRE) found a node on his prostate, which could be a autograph of cancer.
A biopsy showed a Gleason score above six. The Gleason score is a grading system used to evaluate how aggressive a
What Happened to Getting a Doctor’s Finger in Your Butt?
It’s a rite of passage for men. You’re in your 40s, you’re at your annual checkup, and suddenly you hear the snap of a rubber glove. The doctor slathers on some lube and tells you to flex over. Boom—a finger right up your butthole.
The digital rectal exam, or DRE, has long been used to screen for signs of prostate cancer—the most common non-skin cancer in men, killer of over 30,000 a year. Most men understand that’s important. We may even know fathers or uncles or friends who’ve suffered from prostate cancer. But it’s still a minute bit of a shock to be probed so intimately by a person you only watch once a year, at most. The DRE is so infamous a procedure that it’s turned into a kind of folk knowledge, a proto-meme every guy hears about long before it happens to him. It’s the subject of uncomfortable jokes in the locker room, in the examination room, and in Hollywood. Who can forget M. Emmet Walsh lubing up before enthusiastically plugging Chevy Chase in Fletch?
But at my most recent physical, my longtime primary care physician did not seem to be prepping for the probe. I’m pushing 50. When I asked—a little hesitantly—