Past STD exposure and PCa link

I've done some research on this link. Ashamed to admit that my very first sexual experience decades ago led to Chlamydia.

It appears that STD's may play a role in developing PCa and at the very least create a more aggressive form of it when it does strike.

Anyone have anything to add on this? I'm sure no one wants to answer if they had a past STD...but I think it's an interesting piece to the puzzle. Why, at 45, in good health would this strike me is a question I got from my wife all the time.

STDs play a role in aggressive PCA? I don't believe there is a study that backs that up. I have read the studies were inconclusive.

I've had syphilis and gonorrhea a few times (it hurt like a "mofo" taking a leak).

I read a study that having the HPV virus can put you at higher risk of prostate cancer.(didnt say it caused it) Said the same thing for women and cervical cancer. How much truth there is to that I dont know.

I found this one article that directly pertains to your thread, was an interesting read.

http://www.carepages.com/cancer/prostate-cancer-and-stds.html

Considering I was a real bad boy when I was in the service overseas when I was young and single, it was a miracle that I never had a STD. Most of my fellow sailors got the clap and stuff endlessly, as we would go to all the "off limits" places, because they were more fun.

I know now days, there are so many new types and variants. I had no idea that even herpes was so well spread in the population until I did some research of my own.

I agree with Todd though, don't put the blame game in your thoughts about contracting PC. There are men in perfect health, vegans, no family history, etc, that still end up with the curse of PC despite living a healthy life. My original oncologist still feels its mostly a question of genetics when push comes to shove.

David

Purgatory said...
I found this one article that directly pertains to your thread, was an interesting read.
http://www.carepages.com/cancer/prostate-cancer-and-stds.html

Considering I was a real bad boy when I was in the service overseas when I was young and single, it was a miracle that I never had a STD. Most of my fellow sailors got the clap and stuff endlessly, as we would go to all the "off limits" places, because they were more fun.

I know now days, there are so many new types and variants. I had no idea that even herpes was so well spread in the population until I did some research of my own.

I agree with Todd though, don't put the blame game in your thoughts about contracting PC. There are men in perfect health, vegans, no family history, etc, that still end up with the curse of PC despite living a healthy life. My original oncologist still feels its mostly a question of genetics when push comes to shove.

David

There is no "why me?" to this...just curious what I may have done, if anything. As for the genetics argument... That is one I don't buy. I saw a documentary that stated less than 2% of all cancers are genetics related. Not sure I buy that, either. Who really knows? As for the genetics argument... often there are family behaviors that are intrinsic to that particular family. IE: Eat heavy amounts of "x" as they were raised that way. Spent a lot of time breathing certain air due to a certain love for an activity like drag racing, etc.

Perhaps, it is otherworldly in nature. The reason for the original post is I had a guy who isn't a fan of mine due to a rivalry developed on a football forum of all things, he was ecstatic I was stricken with cancer and posted a link stating I probably got it from something I did when I was younger. Good guy.

Pretty amazing people would let such petty things cause them to wish death upon someone. I was stunned this guy was wishing it upon me. I promptly left that forum that day. No need to let something as silly as a game I don't even play anymore, lead to such hostilities.

I had an old co-worker seek me out when he found out I had cancer because, he, too, had cancer. He was a survivor of kidney cancer. He termed what happened to me as: "bad luck"...and "nothing you did". I think within all of us there is a seeking...the where did this come from? Never a why me even though that may seem like semantics, it's very different to me. These questions come on the heels of surgeon stated success in my case. I didn't ask these questions prior, so I'm asking them now.

It would be interesting to see members here state why they think they were touched by this? Would most say "genetics"... or..."bad luck" or something else?

When I was a 20-year old senior in college a long, long time ago, I had a girlfriend that year who left me with two things: (a) pleasant memories, and (b) what I'm pretty sure was a case of genital herpes (well, not ALL the memories were so pleasant!).

I never had it officially diagnosed as that, but I had all the standard symptoms, and if it quacks like a duck …

So naturally when I got the PCa Dx, of course I started thinking and thinking and thinking about possible causes, and inevitably remembered this "legacy" of that relationship long ago.

It was certainly an "uh-oh" moment, and I understandably figured that the errant ways of my youth were now coming back to haunt me. Of course doing a bunch of reading then on the potential relationship of STDs to the beast led to confusion, as the opinions I read ranged all the way from certain connection, to maybe, to insufficient evidence.

But one point I wanted to make. It occurred to me that IF (granted it's a big if) STDs and the like do have a strong influence on the emergence of PCa, say for argument's sake they are actually the prime cause, then there might actually be a silver lining to that cloud.

Because if you got the STD as a young man, and it apparently took decades for it to bring out the PCa in you, and you have now been treated for the PCa and it is hopefully under control, then you should be OK. Because if the STD virus still in you needs more decades to get the beast going again, you likely won't live that long.
IF some STD is the cause.

Yes, yes, I know the logic in the above paragraph is far from airtight, but, hey, it's fun to speculate. Who knows, maybe some medical researcher some day is going to come out with evidence that having certain diseases, even STDs, can actually protect us from the beast! (Sort of the way that cowpox protected the 18th-century milkmaids from getting smallpox).

Wouldn't surprise me..