How much does sex before a blood test affect PSA?

Funny thing. On Monday I remembered that I had an appointment with my urologist on Friday for a 10 month post seed checkup. So, I rushed in and had a PSA blood test hoping that the doctor would get the results by Friday. I forgot that I had sex the night before (this is the second time I have done this!). Rushing in to get the test was all in vain as I ended up cancelling the appointment because I found out my wife (at my request) had changed it to Thursday. I have a yearly coming up with my radiologist, so I think I will just wait until I see him and skip the urologist for now (unless the blood test is shockingly up). They both will just look at the PSA and do a DRE.

Any ideas or data on how sex the night before a test affects the PSA results?

The on going opinion is that sex and ejaculations before the blood draw can cause the prostate to produce more PSA. However the question should be, after having RT or seeds and since the radiation pretty much kills off most of the prostate tissue, does sex or ejaculation have any effect on the PSA it produces?

Terry

Johns Hopkins, in the mass of newsletters they put out, say no sex the day before.

Terry's point is also valid. If the poor guy has been nuked to death, would it matter? Good question, no answer forthcoming from me.

G6, If your looking for a specific #or% increase due to having sex before a psa test. You probably won't find one, I never could find one (after a couple of hrs. of internet searching) just the general response your getting in this thread. I drank beer and had sex the night before along with riding my motorcycle to the GP's office for a routine checkup (long over due) the GP also did the DRE before the blood draw for a psa test (my first psa test,age55). All 4 things I just mentioned have the potential to raise the psa (which came back at 13)Which got me a trip to the URO . I asked him the same thing your asking in this thread. My question to him was, what your asking. His short answer was all 4 activities together wouldn't raise it from 1 or 2 to 13. That was back in mid March Had the LDR seed implants June 4th.

Arkyrider,

Thanks for the info and welcome.

You had seeds June 4th of this year? I hope you are doing well. You may want to add your stats to your signature.

Best of luck to you.

Yes G6, 6/4/2012. I'll fill out my stats here shortly.

Wow I just googled "effect of ejaculation before prostate specific antigen PSA test 24 hours 48 hours 72 hours" There were lots of studies! It is significantl

One Greek paper from Dept of Internal Medicne , Naval Hospital of Crete, Chania, Greece,
"We have examined a 52-year-old asymptomatic Greek subject who in an annual routine blood test had a serum total PSA of 6 ng/ml. His personal and family medical history was unremarkable. There was no history of using drugs, or having symptoms of benign prostate hypertrophy, prostate cancer or prostatitis, and he had no recent diagnostic clinical tests of the genitourinary tract. The patient refused digital rectal examination. An abdominal and prostate ultrasound scan showed no evidence of benign prostate hyperplasia or of prostate cancer. Serum total PSA after ten days was 5.2 ng/ml, but the percent free PSA was 27% (normal > 20%) [8]. After a month, serum total PSA value was 1.2 ng/ml. In another blood test after 3 months, serum total PSA value rose to 7 ng/ml with a percent free PSA of 40%. The urologist recommended a transrectal ultrasound-guided prostate biopsy. The patient refused biopsy. All serum PSA measurements were performed with the same radio-immune assay (RIA) in a nuclear medicine laboratory (Tandem-R PSA, Hybritech Inc., USA) with normal range 0-4.0 ng/ml. The percent free serum PSA was calculated as the ratio of serum free PSA to total PSA multiplied by 100. After discussing this situation with the patient, we were informed that he had sexual activity and ejaculation in less than 24 hours before the first and before the last serum PSA measurements (being 6 and 7 ng/ml respectively). Ejaculation might have had an effect on serum PSA levels in our patient. All other values of serum total PSA measurements performed at least 4 days after sexual abstinence were <1.2 ng/ml..

That's an extreme case. The guy ejaculated within 24 hours of test and had a PSA of 6. One month later it was 1.2. At 3 months he repeated the test after ejaculating within 24 hours and his PSA was 7!
Very significant.
I'd live to be a fly on the wall in that bedroom!

Are you going to abstain from orgasm the rest of your life? The words "false positive" comes to my mind when I think about doing things that might influence test results.

Neither of my two Uro's or my GP ever said anything about anything except when and where to get blood drawn.

How about all the other times you've had blood drawn? If they happened shortly after having the big O - then you're on the same track.

HWell, if my doc says to fast 12 hrs before getting a blood test for cholrestol, glucose and such , I,m gonna do it. I don,t think that is cheating the test or giving false data. Same with the pas test, the doc says no, so I don,t. What,s the difference between these two tests?

Post Edited (James C.) : 6/27/2012 5:55:31 PM (GMT-6)

I thought once we have been treated either surgically or with radiation that it didn't matter as there was no longer enough prostate tissue left functioning to make a difference.

Where are TallAllen and JohnT when we need them??

Gleason 6 said...

Any ideas or data on how sex the night before a test affects the PSA results for men post-brachytherapy?

Gleason 6, the answer to your question is different for men after prostatectomy surgery than it is for men after brachytherapy...I assumed that your more complete question would have included what I added in red text, above.

 - Ejaculation has no effect on PSA for men after prostatectomy.

 - Transient increase in PSA in some men following recent ejaculation for men treated with brachytherapy.

I looked this up 2 years ago. Go above and read my answers on 6/27/2012.

My final paragraph summed up the paper:
" 52-year-old asymptomatic Greek subject who in an annual routine blood test had a serum total PSA of 6 ng/ml."

"... an extreme case. The guy ejaculated within 24 hours of test and had a PSA of 6. One month later it was 1.2. At 3 months he repeated the test after ejaculating within 24 hours and his PSA was 7!
Very significant."
I'd love(sic) to be a fly on the wall in that bedroom!"

That study was for someone with a prostate. Obviously.

Jeff (Who, right now, is wishing if would make a difference in his case and would really like to run an experiment. Sigh.)

I am certainly no expert on this topic, but I will add what I know from my own testing for everybody's information.

I am 39 tomorrow.
I had my first PSA about 15 months ago. 1.0 score.
I had my second PSA yesterday 1.4 score.

I did not abstain from Orgasm for 72 hours either time.
The first test I had sex 24-48 hours prior.
The second test I self relieved (this forum considers ********** to be a dirty word?) within 12 hours of the test.

I didn't know I was having the first test until I had it.
I forgot I was meant to abstain for the second.

I do not have cancer, I guess that is fairly clear from the scores.

Post Edited (butnutter) : 12/18/2015 1:25:32 AM (GMT-7)