Anybody taking hormone therapy for prostate cancer?

[Rusty]

Hey Guys.  It's been 5 years to the month since
I had my prostate removed.  I have been cancer free until this month.  My PSA is .47 which is .27 above the threshold to need additional treatment.   I am quite sure the doctor is going to give me Lupron which stops all testosterone production.

I was wondering if anyone has been on this? Is it tolerable?

Thanks

[doug coursey]

Hey Guys.  It's been 5 years to the month since
I had my prostate removed.  I have been cancer free until this month.  My PSA is .47 which is .27 above the threshold to need additional treatment.   I am quite sure the doctor is going to give me Lupron which stops all testosterone production.

I was wondering if anyone has been on this? Is it tolerable?

Thanks

i was on it for a couple months before my seed implants and radiation treatment...it was suppose to shrink my prostrate but it was already small felt really bad on it....can they do radiation treatments to kill the cancer....i had it done 11 years ago and my PSA was .02 on my last test

[Rusty]

What happened is that I was using VA health care.   In 2016 and 2017 my PSA velocity and free PSA were abnormal but the VA doctor did not know it was abnormal so nothing was done.  I  had pain my groin and went to a civilian urologist at my expense.   The first visit he said I had cancer.  A biopsy showed I had stage 3, Gleason 8 cancer.  I got my prostate removed, but the margins were not clean.   My lymph nodes were clean.  After that I got 36 radiation treatments on the prostate bed.   That worked for 5 years.   Just when he said I get a PSA test annually it went up.   

Last month I got a special CAT scan to find any cancer and none was found.  The cancer cells have not formed a tumor yet.

So my next treatment is hormones.   I'm just hoping they won't make me another Bryce Jenner.

[GallopingGhostler]

I'm just hoping they won't make me another Bryce Jenner.

They won't. He made a choice of his will.

[doug coursey]

I WAS ON THE LUPRON FOR 3 MONTHS...IT WAS TO SHRINK MY PROSTRATE BEFOE THEY DID SEED IMPLANTS...MINE WAS NOT ENLARGED....I FELT LIKE CRAP WHILE I WAS ON IT,IT LOWERED MY TESTOSTERONE WAS ALMOST 0. I HAD HOT FLASHES AND OTHER ISSUES,I WOULDNT WANT TO BE ON IT FOR A LONG TIME..THEY CLAIM TESTOSTERONE FEEDS THE CANCER BUT THERES NO PROOF THATS TRUE

[Steve Helmick]

More than a decade ago, I asked my GP why they didn't report on PSA level after my usual blood test & labs. He said all old guys have an elevated PSA, so why test for it? Well, fine, except that my father died (at 80) of cancer that started as prostate cancer. It looks like I'll probably have the same future. 77 and counting. Steve

[Roy DeCamara]

Steve    Get rid of the dimwit GP and make an appointment with a good urologist.  What you are doing if I read this correctly is what is called, Wait and See.  The least effective therapy with usually lethal results.  Best regards, Roy

[Rusty]

Doug, that is what concerns me.  I may have to be on it a long time due to no other treatment options.   I'll find out April 7th when I see my oncologist.   

[doug coursey]

If you stay on it for a long time and get off of it,your testosterone level might return to a normal range...you wont like being on it for long

[Steve Helmick]

Steve    Get rid of the dimwit GP and make an appointment with a good urologist.  What you are doing if I read this correctly is what is called, Wait and See.  The least effective therapy with usually lethal results.  Best regards, Roy

Actually, THAT GP retired to playing golf in Bend, Oregon, a few years after I went on Medicare and had to find a different GP.

Finding a Dr. that will work with Medicare is a boondoggle...even with real good supplemental (Blue Cross). Plus, they apparently get promoted to the local hospital staff or hired someplace else, and I'm assigned to a different GP. I believe I'm on #3 since retiring in 2010. She's a tiny little Chinese American girl, and I doubt if she can reach my prostate. I haven't been probed since leaving the dimwit. Who, by the way, did an outstanding job of diagnosing my gimpy appendix, getting appropriate NDT done and lining up an excellent surgeon at dark thirty AM.    Steve

[Roy DeCamara]

Hey Steve    Where the heck are you, in Hooterville?  I don't have a license to practice medicine, but I will say the digital inspection is old school and not much better than wait and see.  The real answer if the PSA has elevated is biopsy.  I have to say uncomfortable, but necessary.  I had many biopsy's over an 8 year period.  It saved my life for the last 17 years, so I not throwing this out for the hell of it. There are those that say PSA testing does not signifyingly save lives.  I'll argue that because it saved mine.   Best Regards.  Roy

[Rusty]

Hey Steve    Where the heck are you, in Hooterville?  I don't have a license to practice medicine, but I will say the digital inspection is old school and not much better than wait and see.  The real answer if the PSA has elevated is biopsy.  I have to say uncomfortable, but necessary.  I had many biopsy's over an 8 year period.  It saved my life for the last 17 years, so I not throwing this out for the hell of it. There are those that say PSA testing does not signifyingly save lives.  I'll argue that because it saved mine.   Best Regards.  Roy

I wouldn't have cancer now if the VA did their job.  They ignored abnormal PSA velocity and free PSA which showed high percentage of cancer and gave NO exams.   I would have got surgery before the cancer escaped my prostate. 

Several times I  had to call Trumps VA hotline to make them give me my blood pressure medicine.   That program was a life saver.  They had 24 hours to get the medicine to me.

I am glad to be out of VA now. 

[doug coursey]

When my PSA came back 11.8 i had a biopsy done and it came back grade 8 cancer,they did the bone scan and it still only in my prostrate so they did seed implants and radiation..iits been 12 years and my last PSA was.02

[Rusty]

Doug, I would say you kicked cancer's A$$.

[doug coursey]

looks good so far...i never had any symptoms like enlarged or anything...the only way they found it was the PSA test