In the early hours of this morning, I did finally find a web page that wasn't trying to sell me medication. But to answer your first point, I recall a young chap from the NY area asking about a problem. He said that he hadn't much money, but the answers were mostly advising going to a doctor. I knew that he probably couldn't afford to -- unless it was life threatening for example.
Down here, a lady with a stomach upset was charged $14,000 for stabilizing her fever. Hence my determination to beat the system.
I was particularly interested in my uric acid readings etc., but I had the PSA done because of the aforementioned flow restriction. You will understand, that comparing with many others, rather than a few close friends, gives a much broader indication of what to expect with aging. The question really is, Am I very far outside the norm.
The web site was fairly drawn out, so I'll just give the link, but one of the vital bits of information was the
trend rate. I haven't got time to read it again this AM, but from memory, about a third of a point a year increase is a serious factor ---
if the patient has a malignant tumor.
My real quandary now is, what does that trend mean if there is no malignancy?
Since the higher figures tend to give rise to over investigation by biopsy, I'm going to wait until the next reading in about a year...unless other checks mean that I should move more quickly.
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/f.../Detection/PSA