Storage bladder symptoms include:

• Frequency – going to pass urine too frequently
• Urgency – the uncomfortable inability to defer urination
• Overactive bladder – a combination of these factors
• Urge incontinence – As above with urine leakage
• Nocturia – waking at night to pass urine

Voiding bladder symptoms can occur if there is a restriction to the flow. These include:

• Hesitancy – delayed start of urination
• Poor flow
• Intermittent stream
• Dribbling at the end of voiding

PSA stands for Prostate Specific Antigen. PSA is a protein made by prostate cells. It typically leaks into your blood from the prostate but is not directly a result of prostate cancer. AS men get older the prostate tends to enlarge and this can cause a rise in PSA.

There are various causes for a rise in PSA including:

• Prostate Cancer
• Infection (UTI, Prostatitis)
• Trauma (surgery, urethral catheterisation, DRE, Biopsy)
• Irritation i.e. Acute urinary retention
• Enlarging prostate (benign prostatic enlargement)
• Increasing age

Your Clinician at South Coast Urology will be able to assess things in your particular case and offer a plan for further assessment. Sometimes this involves the use of risk calculators such as the SWOP risk calculator.

Rarely men presenting with a new diagnosis of prostate cancer do so with pain in the long bones. This in conjunction with a significantly elevated PSA may suggest a cancer that has spread from the prostate to the bone.

There is no set screening programme for prostate cancer, unlike breast cancer, in England at present. However, men presenting to their GP with LUTS may choose to have a PSA test done after appropriate counselling. Currently studies are looking at whether a shortened sequence MRI scan may be suitable for screening for prostate cancer.