Researchers at the University of Oklahoma have a five year grant to work out what actually gets a man to take a prostate test. They built an app. Fine. But the piece they built into it is the interesting part. A man can ask for a confidential phone call with another man who has already been through prostate cancer, before he decides anything. That is it. A phone call. Funded, designed, and studied like it matters. Because apparently it does. I keep coming back to this one because of how I found out about my own prostate. A friend told me in an airport sixteen years ago. Not a doctor. Not a leaflet. Not a website, because there was nothing on them back then worth reading. A friend who noticed and said something. I think almost everyone here has a version of that moment, or the absence of one. So. Who told you first? Your doctor, your wife, a mate, or did you piece it together on your own? And if the honest answer is that nobody has ever told you anything, say that. I suspect it is the most common answer in the room and the one nobody puts in writing. https://www.skool.com/prostate-paladin-4886/about

@Alex Beviss Your post on symptoms got me thinking about my personal experience dealing with my prostate. I'll be honest, I didn't comprehend these things were all tied to the same problem. These are the symptoms that I personally experienced. I am going to be a little vulnerable if you don't mind. No pain - If I failed to take my Flomax daily, I notice a difference. It never hurt but I noticed an increased frequency and very weak stream. When I thought I was done urinating I actually wasn't. Sometimes returning two or three times within 20 or 30 minutes from the first urge to go. Weak stream - I saw this in your symptom list. This is actually what started me asked questions 10 years ago. Erectile Disfunction - I didn't experience erectile disfunction but I feared that was next if I didn't seek treatment. I did lose it during intercourse once or twice but that was all. The fear was real. I also found I always had to urinate immediately after. At the time it was kind of comical. Now that I know I had a larger issue getting worse and worse, I don't find it funny at all. This last symptom is embarrassing to admit. I feel though it is important to share with this community and you as you continue to bring awareness. I hope this supports the cause. Nocturnal Urination and Ejaculation - I am trying to be PG here. I experienced this while fully asleep multiple times. One time urinating in my sleep scared me enough to scheduled an appointment with my primary care doctor to talk about why and how this could happen. I continued to experience these issues over the next year. At the time, I didn't know my bladder and prostate issues were the direct cause of these embarrassing moments. This is the first time I have shared it with anyone other than my wife and doctor. When I finally saw the urologist for an unrelated pain. An ultrasound showed me to have 718 mL of urine in my bladder after fully urinating two to three times in the last 20 to 30 minutes. The doctor thought I had a tumor in my bladder blocking my ability to urinate fully. A CT scan showed a large mass in/near my bladder. He scoped by bladder in the office (cystoscopy) which proved there was no tumor. I left the office that morning with a catheter. Before I left the office however, I drained that bag three times. I lost almost 5 pounds that morning.

Quick one, and I would like actual answers rather than polite nods. A survey of men 55 and over in the States found that 41% either have had prostate cancer or know someone who has. Only 6 per cent could identify all of the symptoms. Caveat first, because I am not going to put a number in front of you without saying where it came from. It was run by a hospital system, and they did not publish how many men they asked or when. So it is a snapshot, not a study. I am using it because the gap feels right, not because the numbers are bulletproof. Here is the list they used: Difficult, frequent or urgent urination Blood in urine or semen Fatigue Lower back, hip or thigh pain Erectile dysfunction Weight loss I will go first. Fatigue and weight loss would not have been on my list sixteen years ago. I would have said the waterworks ones and stopped there, and I would have felt quite well informed doing it. Also I want to be honest here, with Prostate Cancer, by the time you recognize most of the symptoms listed, the cancer may have already spread. The safest choice is to get a regular PSA test, so you know your baseline. So, which one on that list surprised you? Put it in the comments. I want to know which of these we are collectively not carrying, because that is the one worth a post of its own. https://www.skool.com/prostate-paladin-4886/about

I read about a screening day at a school in South Africa in September. 173 men came through it. The year before, the same event got 100. One of the men in that line was 57. He already has symptoms, and he has seen what this disease did to his uncle, and his old employer died of it. He said he hopes that if he has it, it is early. That is not a man who needed convincing. That is a man who had nowhere easy to go until that Saturday. I have spent years now writing things to get men to pay attention. Some of it probably works. But I suspect a table in a hall on a weekend beats most of what I write. So here is what I am curious about. For those of you who did finally go and get checked, what actually got you through the door? Was it somebody asking you, or was it just that it suddenly became easy? I would rather know the truth than keep guessing. https://www.skool.com/prostate-paladin-4886/about

A man in Jamaica, John Leiba, 77 years old. Diagnosed at 73 with prostate cancer. No symptoms at all. The only thing that gave it away was a PSA reading that kept going up at the check-ups he already attended twice a year. He got through it. He is clear now. But the bit that got me was what came after. Nerve damage in his legs. A spell where one mile took him twenty-seven minutes, and this is a man who used to run six before breakfast. His feet swelled up. He had to rebuild from almost nothing, and he did it with pull-ups. Twenty of them on his last birthday, at 77. I think I expected a survivor story to be tidier than that. His was not, and he said so plainly, and I respect him more for it. The thing I keep turning over is this. He was already careful. Twice a year at the doctor, called himself paranoid about it. Being careful did not stop him getting it. What being careful did was find it while it was still fixable. Those are two very different promises, and we tend to muddle them. So a question for you lot, and I am genuinely curious. Has anyone ever sat you down and walked you through your PSA numbers over time? Not handed you one result and a thumbs up. Actually shown you the line, this year against last year. I suspect most of us have been given a single number and left to guess. Tell me if I am wrong. For me I usually get my PSA checked during a physical and they are not always at the same hospital, so I have to keep track of my own numbers. I encourage everyone to do this. https://www.skool.com/prostate-paladin-4886/about