low psa, low testosterone, enlarged prostate, bone pains

York,

Welcome to the forum. Sorry you have worries but glad you found us. Hope we can help.

In the other thread you posted to you probably read what we said to the other worried young man. Men in their 40s with symptoms like yours hardly ever find out that those symptoms are caused by prostate cancer. It's worth checking. Seeing a urologist is a good idea, especially if your other doctor felt some abnormality, but if your symptoms are related to your prostate it is much more likely to be an infection than cancer.

You are right that some of the more aggressive forms of prostate cancer produce less PSA per gram of tumor than the less-aggressive, lower Gleason Score varieties. But not usually that little. A guy your age with extensive painful mets and a PSA of 0.5 would be one for the books.

So, once again the advice that nobody ever follows: don't worry too much about your date with the urologist.

Good luck. Keep us posted.

Sorry about the pain. Prostatitis often has referred pain.

In a study of men in their 40s who had a psa<1 were followed for as long as 19 years. By the age of 55,none of them developed intermediate or high risk PC, and only .6% developed low risk PC by the age of 55.

Men (Aged 40-49 Years) With a Single Baseline Prostate-specific Antigen Below 1.0 ng/mL Have a Very Low Long-term Risk of Prostate Cancer: Results From a Prospectively Screened Population Cohort

- Allen

Thanks for the link,

i have been on quite a few sites regarding prostatitis and cant seem to see anything that states referred pain in the hip joint. My hip joint is really causing me pain and has got worse over the course of this summer. Can prostatitis cause referred pain in the actual hip joint?
it actully hurts more when im in bed laid down rather than walking (load bearing)

I also notice this last few weeks i have a pain in my left elbow and shoulder blade so i wonder if these pains are not linked to Prostatitis and maybe something else....hopefully nothing serious

 

Yes i agree, thats why im a little worried that these bone pains are not linked to the prostate and the enlarged prostate is an incidental assymptomatic finding.

Im getting bone pains in strange places not normally associated with PC such as in my jaw and in my elbow and hip joint.

20 months ago i had an x-ray and ct scan on my lungs as i was regularly breathless and weak along with breathing pains in my chest. They both came back ok but the breathlessness has continued to this day so im hoping the problem wasnt missed and the bone pains are not linked to this. I started getting the bone pains a little after that so it would have to be quick to grow and metastatise that quickly.

I know this is not strictly a Prostate question, but does anyone know how small a tumour would have to be to be too small to be picked up on a 20 second ct without contrast?

Surely a tumour wouldnt be able to double up that many times and metastatise to bones enough to cause pain in around 6 months. Also from what ive read, once LC has mets to bones its a very quick morbidity and ive had these bone pains for over a year and other than these pains i dont feel too bad (although they have got progressively worse than a year ago).

btw ive never smoked but did live with a father who smoked so possible passive during childhood.

 

Post Edited (york70) : 9/16/2014 7:23:18 AM (GMT-6)

thanks Tall Allen

Im not sure its the actual elbow or hip joint where the pain is actually coming from. E.G. My medial epicondyle bone on my distal humerus is painful to the touch rather than anywhere in the elbow joint itself being painful to bend. (i read about golf elbow but i dont get any pain when i replicate where its supposed to hurt or have done anything to prompt the injuuy).

i have had some blood test for arthritus and the doc said it was ok, i do not know what all the tests were (one was c reactive protein) but he hasnt sent me for any bone scan. Thats my next request at my GP.

Hopefully like you state, its just a form of auto immune disease that can be sorted with a few meds. When you have health anxiety like me you always over think things.

On the Prostate front. Ive just had a referral to the urologist for the 15th October...i was quite surprised with that date as the Endocrinologist said it would be an urgent referral. So its either the good old NHS is swamped and thats the earliest they can get me in or the endocrinologist gave me the wrong impression about being urgent. I think the 0.5 PSA has prompted the distant referral time.

 

Post Edited (york70) : 9/16/2014 10:54:04 AM (GMT-6)

Hi

Ok ive just got back from an ultrasound on my groin area and she says my chain of lymph nodes are swollen in my left hip joint area.

So now im officially freaking out. Can protatitis cause this or BPH? If it is prostate cancer does this mean that its gone beyond the prostate. Ive had this groin pain for around 12 months now and its recently got worse so now im worried that its had all this time to spread. Could my lower back and distal humerus pain actually be bone spread?

My psa is 0.5 so im confused? could this psa be wrong? ive only had 1 psa test.

can any one comment?

thanks for replying so quickly, you have eased my worries a little.

Yes it was definitely the lymph nodes near the hip joint crease of my left groin she was looking at. She said the whole chain were swollen and asked if i had had any infections recently, which i hadnt. I told her about my prostate and she did try and look but couldnt get a good image as my bladder wasnt full (im not sure how good an image you can get anyway with a normal ultrasound).

So im assuming that also prostatitis doesnt affect these lymph nodes either, thats a shame i was hoping for that rather than anything else more sinister.

i just seem to be getting worse bone pains with each week but im wondering if thats just my anxiety as surely bone doesnt change this quickly after having 12 months of pretty much stable non progression of bone pain.

i am just hoping that these breathing pains ive been having is also the anxiety and isnt linked to this but i guess it would be lymph nodes in my chest and not my groin that were swollen.

lets hope i can get a cancellation at my urologist rather than waiting until the 15th October .

Do you still not have a diagnosis 18 days after the start of this thread? Apparently not. Have you seen a Urologist, has a biopsy been done? If the URO felt nothing, along with a low PSA then I guess there would be no prostate biopsy ordered. Sorry to hear you are still struggling and with no answer!

Hi York70 and welcome to HealingWell.

I also live in the UK and well aware of the way our NHS is being run at the moment.

You have already been given some pretty good advice by some of the top guys in this forum, who between them have many years of knowledge on all things prostate. I joined about a week ago and was in the same panic mode as you are right now. Asking questions on top of questions even after being given some solid advice. I think it got to the point where the guys were getting a bit fed up (I cant blame them) and my thread has slowly drifted into the weeds lol.

You seem very preoccupied by the whole cancer thing. To the point that it sounds to me like you are convincing yourself that is what you have! You say that you have already had a chest X-ray. Trust me, if you had lung cancer it would show up as a shadow on the lung. You say that you have never smoked, so your breathlessness is probably not caused by something like COPD, but even that would show on a standard X-ray anyway (I have it). Other things that can cause breathlessness are being overweight, asthma, or plain old simple panic attacks. If you easly get worried over things then that can bring on a panic/anxiety attack (I have had those for the past ten years)

Your doctor should of told you more about the DRE he carried out. Go back and ask him. Was it enlarged but smooth, or enlarged with lumps. As someone has already said, it could well be prostatitis (none of us are doctors here) The lower back pain and pain in your tummy are just a couple of the symptoms of prostatitis. There are different types of prostatitis with varying symptoms. You could get all, some or none whatsoever, it is a strange animal to try and diagnose and treat (it wont kill you) A biopsy is really the only true way to find out, and treatment can be as difficult as PC, but both have one thing in common, they can both cause an enlarged prostate and can give an elevated PSA reading (that is where I am right now while I wait for my biopsy)

As someone has told you already, all these strange aches and pains you are having are not normal signs of PC. You could be getting yourself so worked up that your anxiety could be causing them (I get those as well, I am a wreck lol) I got so stressed out once that I lost the sight in both eyes! It is true, you can, Google it and check it out. Stress can show up in funny ways. Your back pain.....Have you have you ever had a back injury in your life? I was involved in a bad car smash when I was 32 and had a few problems with my back after, but it calmed down after a while. 20 years on I started getting chronic back pain just as you describe. It can change every day. Either in just my lower back, one hip. Both hips, down my right leg, or all of them together. Once I was even rushed into hospital with severe chest pain, I thought I was having a heart attack!! But the pain was radiating from my back. Call it referred pain or “phantom pain” It all comes down to the same thing, the cause of the pain is not actually coming from where you are feeling it. Like a trapped nerve in your back can cause pain in your legs, sciatic nerve (I have that as well lol) After an MRI scan my consultant told me one of my discs had collapsed and was trapping a nerve and that it could be as a result of the injury I had suffered years previously.

Bottom line is. Try and calm down. Wait until you see the uro guy and take from there. And remember. PC is unlike any other form of cancer. It is very slow growing, and as you will read here, there are many various good treatments for it. Check out some of the signatures under some of the other guys posts on here. 10 years and more after diagnosis and still going strong. But as others have already told you, the symptoms you describe don’t sound PC related. More likely an infection. Here are a couple of links that you may want to check out regarding prostatitis. Even with treatment this condition can be something that you have to learn to live with. It can come and go over very long periods, years even.

www.urologyhealth.org/urology/index.cfm?article=15

www.urologyhealth.org/content/moreinfo/prostatitis.pdf

As I said, I am not a doctor, just trying to help with information I have found and experience from my own health issues.

All the best and good luck.

Casper555

Hi, New here and looking for some sage advice/info. I too am very worried about PC. I'm 53. In April I developed no-urge constipation seemingly out of the blue. I did have some flank discomfort along with it. All that led to major health anxiety. Doc put me on antianxiety med Sertraline. I also am on medication for GERD (Prilosec) and cholesterol (lipitor). Doc said constipation was from stress/anxiety. Exercise, fluids, metemucil was advised. I have also had pain in my ribs and back but mostly when I'm driving or laying in bed. Which ever side I'm laying on my ribs hurt. Generally in an isolated spot. Now I have just found out that I have blood in my urine. It was analyzed and showed no infection. I'm going to a urologist next week. I'm very worried that this is advanced PC. No family history. Non smoker. Haven't drank for 10 years. Poor diet though. I'm 5'8" 190lbs. I do currently have lower back pain and some pelvic pain but im 99 percent sure it's from my Spondylolisthesis, which is a lower back disc problem which I've had for years. The back/pelvic pain just started less than a week ago and I've had it many times before. It comes and goes But I do have some slight pain in my urethra. ButPart of my recent exercise routine has been daily bike riding and wondering if that could be causing it. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Joe

Hi Guys

A little update. im the OP

So i finally got to see my GP and had an X-ray done on my chest... I have not spoken directly to my GP but his receptionist stated it was normal. I know x-rays are not the best scan but im pretty confident it would have shown up something if it was big enough to spread to my bones so im happy with that news and moving on. Am i right being that confident? should i push for a CT?

So im back to whats causing these bone pains and im back to the prostate problem.

My Upper back is now hurting continuously under my left shoulder blade and still hurts when i breath but as my lungs are ok it must be a rib or muscular issue. Would the chest Xray have also picked up any problems with my ribs or do they adjust the setting somehow to mainly show the lungs if that what the scan was for?
I cannot lay on the left side anymore and it wakes me if i move onto it when im asleep. It even hurts if im sat at a high backed chair and my upper back is pressing on it. Im taking ibuprofen to hopefully help with the pain.

At the weekend, for the first time, my pains actually stopped me from doing my day to day routine. I had my usual low sacrum pain when walking more than 10 minutes, which I can still hobble around even though its painful. However, i also I got a pain in my hip that would not go away and felt worse with each step so I couldnt continue shopping with my wife and had to go and sit in my car.

I am still getting absolutely no classic symptoms with my prostate, no urinary problems, no ED problems, just the bone pain around my left hip, lower and upper back and all the other distant bones that seem to be adding up. My distal humerus pain has now been 5 weeks and still the same pain intensity.

Each time i visit my GP, i make a list of problems im having on a notes app on my phone ready and talk to the docs about them. When reading some past notes from early last year for my IBS symptoms I had written that my bowel movements where always semi-circular shaped. This was 18 months ago and noticed they are still the same this weekend. They are not round, they have a sort of edge that looks like its been cut out. Would i be right in thinking the enlarged prostate could push against the rectum and cause this mishape? if this is the case then I have had this prostate problem for at least 18 months maybe longer.

I am still concerned that I am one of the unlucky ones and have an aggressive PC that is so differentiated that its not producing any serum and thus im getting a 0.5 masked psa. Could an aggressive variant really not give any urinary symptoms but have spread as for as my bones and lymph nodes.

Is there anyone who frequents this site that is fairly young, had a low initial PSA but still had metastatic PC in their bones? I would love to hear from them.

I see the urologist on the 16th October. 9 days and most definitely counting.