SHEEESSHHHH - oh well ... : (

Hey surf...is this a repeating trend or just a sample of 2? When you're dealing with usPSA down to the thousandths, an infected splinter can show a detectable rise. In any case, hope you guys get the treatment and drugs you want. FWIW, my Medicare Part D covers Orgovyx and Nubeqa. Max out of pocket is $2,100 (which I meet in January with the first refill of the year). Not that they actually work for me, but then again, I'm weird. 🤣🤣🤣

As always, wishing you guys the best!

I don't want to be Pollyanna-ish here, but 0.026 and 0.05 are both essentially the same result: "barely detectable." In fact, on the regular PSA test they'd both come in as undetectable. The meds are clearly doing their work and keeping any remaining cancer traces firmly in check.

p.s. I'm not pretending that I won't be stressed if/when my own PSA moves from "undetectable" to "barely detectable", so if I start stressing here in the forum, you have my permission in advance to point me back to this post. 🙂

Sorry to hear that the PSA keeps rising. As others have said, though, it is still low. And the good news is that cancer control with early SRT is excellent, if your hb is going to need it.
Hugs and best wishes 🤗🤗🤗

@mjp0512
Hey mjp : ), thanks for the info about Medicare and related cost. It is a lot, but since my husband still works it is very important that SA are minimized : (.

uPSA went from less than 0.014, to 0.014 , to 0.015, to 0.018, to 0.026, to 0.05 (we do test every month), so increase is steady and trend is upward : (.

Because my husband has high risk features, his MO suggested during our adjuvant RT discussion (November 2025) that if he ever has PSA rising that 0.05 could be an "action point" and treatment started at (or little before) PSA 0.1 for the best results. Some studies show that if patient ever reaches 0.03 after RP, that that person has great probability for BCR in the future. *sigh His urologist was optimistic since his first uPSA was less than 0.014 but alas, my husband is always "outside of expected" statistics from the very beginning.

Sending best wishes back 💗 !

@northoftheborder
Dearest NorthStar 🌟, I LOVE Pollyanna-ish talk, I actually need it ; ).

The thing is, Mr.Surf is not on any drugs so there is nothing to keep his PSA down. *sigh

You made me smile with your PS, thanks 🤗 !

@topf
Thanks Topf for well-wishing and hugs 💗🤗 - means a LOT !

well there may be something going on but that is a very slight up tick in PSA which could be caused by any number of things..exercise, certain foods, sex, cycling..UTI, injury to the prostate gland can damage the epithelial barrier, allowing prostate-specific antigen (PSA) to leak into the bloodstream, resulting in significantly elevated PSA levels. Trauma from accidents (like cycling or falls), surgery, catheters, or intense, direct trauma can cause this release.

So at this juncture, you dont know what has caused this small uptick..take a step back and breath a bit..but really, the PSA level is Negligible..for now

Many labs label < .04 unmeasurable PSA, some at .05. Your body in other organs still produce minute levels of PSA. My surgeon refused ultra sensitive tests for the first year after surgery for several reasons. As mentioned food can affect PSA levels as well as stress in general in a body healing. He said you could get ultra sensitive tests for the first year that might show increases never going above generally accepted labs showing a < unmeasurable amount and no oncologist would begin any treatment so you could if in fact your PSA was rising go a whole year in hell worrying, going out of your mind causing your body stress, then if a quarterly test after 9 months to a year exceeded the unmeasurable level. PSA test anxiety is as well known as scan anxiety for other cancer patients. With prior non Hodgkin’s lymphoma I learned how stressful that was , but did not begin for the stress to build until a month before my scan. I did not let it live my life for the three months: six months or a year, or later longer .

@xahnegrey40

Hi @xahnegrey40 : ))). Thanks for stopping by and for your comforting words, it is very much appreciated 💗.

The thing is, Mr.Surf does not have prostate any more, so there is very little else that can rise his PSA except leftover cells or some "new" bad cells 😣. Viral infection or high inflammation of another origin could possibly cause rise of PSA from other sources (like salivary glands or perianal glands , or periurethral glands etc.), but this sustained rise over couple of months is pretty troubling.

I, of course, hope for the best, but we shell see ... 🍀 His MO told us that he might want to start RT at PSA 0.1 due to his high risk features, so 0.05 is not that far from that "number" *sigh ... It doubled in the month before so if it doubles this month we are at 0.1 just like that 😕.

I realize he does have a very serious case. I’m not sure most doctors would want to do something at .05, but the doubling rate is pretty fast and that is what you really need to go by. .026 and 40 days later hitting .05 is a very fast doubling rate. I wonder if the doctor might want to wait for one more test just to make sure but adjunct radiation was something you were looking at originally and it probably is time to do it soon.

So sorry to hear this is happening. I know the first time I went on ADT, a 6 month shot, It wasn’t a big deal while I was working and didn’t even notice it. When I went on it full time a few years later the pressure of my job was too much so I retired.