What was your age at Dx? (A look at how we break down, age-wise)

Since there seem to have been a number of new guys posting here lately who also seem to be on the younger side (40-ish) (welcome, you guys, BTW), it got me to wondering just what is the age breakdown of our current more-or-less-regularly posting membership. Hence, the survey above.

While PCa has usually been thought of as an "old man's disease" (current average age at Dx is around 65, I believe), there is at least a perception that earlier diagnoses are becoming more common. Whether, if true, this is due to earlier testing or some other reason has been a subject of discussion here in past threads. But for now, just out of curiosity, let's get a picture of where most of us are in terms of age.

I think we may have had this kind of discussion here before, but it's valid to repeat it occasionally, as our posting membership (and possibly their ages) does change over time.

Yes, I did skew the above choices a bit toward the younger age groups, to see what kind of distribution we do indeed have for those guys.

But please do vote, and let's see what the resulting "curve" looks like.

Shaba.Doug -

Good point. I have made the change.

Thanks,

81

55 at Dx, turned 56 while recovering from surgery.

At 65, only because of Medicare. The Kaiser plan required an initial physical, which included a PSA test. To this day, I wonder how early I would have been diagnosed if I'd been getting regular tests, and also what would have happened if I'd have continued on ignorant about my condition.

Diagnosed at 56. I began yearly PSA's at age 40. My grandfather died of prostate cancer, my uncle had prostate cancer that was successfully treated and my younger brother died of non-Hodgkins lymphoma at 41.

Just turned 64 a week before diagnosis. Happy f'n birthday to me.

68 at Dx. Feel fortunate to have made it so far.

Had a cardiac arrest at age 44 and after recovery, cardiologist said there was no reason I shouldn't live to at least 70!!

Seemed like a long way off at the time, now I am asking for a review!

Long live us.

Chas

DX very recently at 52. As it turns out I had PSA tests done as part of routine medical checks from age 40, but I had no idea until now what that was for.

Sept. 11, 2012, annual physical with my PC, PSA was 126!! A few months later, while cleaning out a drawer, my wife found a report from my PC where my PSA was 2.7, from 2007.

Was fully DX Oct. 3, 2012 (with all the test in). I turned 62, Oct. 28, 2012...Happy Birthday Dave!!!


Dave

Peter, this COULD be an argument for PSA screening, eh?

Cheers, Doug

Well, now isn't that interesting?

As I look at the resulting survey results right now, that is, as of about 9 AM EST Dec. 20, the curve generated by the numbers is an almost perfect normal distribution, with a sample mean of about 53 years. Which means, based on the sample that has responded so far, that there are about as many guys here below age 53 as there are above it.

If I had been asked to guess, I would have thought that the average age here would have been somewhat higher. Or, perhaps it does vary over time as our forum membership varies over time.

But it is indeed interesting that while average age of Dx is around 65, the average age of posters here may run significantly lower than that at around age 53. The effect of earlier testing, as suggested by Shaba.Doug? The possibility that Internet forum users like us may be a bit more sophisticated than the average public, and thus more aware of the importance of things like medical testing and getting it done? Whatever the reason, it does seem like something good is happening if guys are learning about their PCa at younger ages.

81 gray,

I think a lot of the reason that our members here on the forum trend younger than you would expect is that Internet use is more pervasive for younger populations.

I was thinking the same thing Peter.
It's good that guys are finding their PC earlier and earlier. At the same time, hurts to see such young guys getting this life changing diagnosis in their early 40s.

@Fred, welcome. My surgery is also in Jqnuary, we'lol both Rock this thing and move on (but not from this forum, gonna stick around to help the guys in line behind me)