Conduct Prostate Specific Antigen test at least once every year – Doctor advices men aged 40 and above
Dr. Dennis Bortey, a medical director at Healthnet Medical Center has adviced men aged 40 and above to commit themselves to undergo a Prostate Specific Antigen test at least once a year.
A Prostate Specific Antigen test (PSA) is a blood test used primarily to screen for prostate cancer. The test measures the amount of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in your blood.
PSA is a protein produced by both cancerous and noncancerous tissue in the prostate, a small gland that sits below the bladder in males.
Dr. Dennis Bortey gave the advice in an interview on 3FM’s Sunrise with Johnnie Huges on Thursday, June 13.
He implored men to avoid engaging in sexual activity for three days prior to conducting the Prostate Specific Antigen test.
This, he said will avoid any distortion in the result. Dr. Bortey explained that ejaculating a day to the test has higher likelihood of inducing a false positive result.
“When you ejaculate a night before you do the PSA, it will be high, it will be elevated because the prostate has been excited in the activity so it might give you a false positive result. So its something you plan ahead of and say for three days, I’m going to sat away from sex,” he noted.
According to him, men who undergo the test without strict adherence to abstaining from sexual activity, will have to undergo a new test where they have abstained from the act, and compare it with their previous results.
“If you get your result then you have to juxtapose that against our activity. So, you would have to do another one where you have obeyed all the rules,” Dr. Bortey added.
