I think most men are trying to avoid a prostate biopsy. Even if their PSA levels are high, men do not want to get it even though the biopsy is still considered the gold standard in detecting if you have prostate cancer. 

No matter how much you may be fighting it, biopsies are really helpful to your prostate health, and to take a deeper dive into biopsies, I brought on my good friend and colleague Dr. James Wysock to the Dr. Geo Podcast to do an episode on prostate biopsies and much more.  

Dr. Wysock is a Urologic Oncologist at NYU Langone and a thought leader in prostate health. His research and papers have been some of the best I have ever read in this field. And the episode is full of nuggets about prostate health and urological health that will help you make the best decision regarding biopsies. 

There is a lot of information in this episode and I highly recommend you watch the episode on my Youtube channel and listen to the episode on Apple, Spotify and wherever else you get your podcast.  

Let’s get into it. 

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EPISODES NOTES

When Should You Get A Biopsy?

You have heard me say this before, but no one wakes up excited to go get a prostate biopsy so one of the things I found compelling about Dr. Wysock on the podcast is that he mentions the importance of need and what is the best type. He mentions that while the biopsy is pretty much the only way to see if we can diagnose cancer for prostate, he hopes that the consideration of diagnostic modalities in the future will evolve in replacing the biopsy as the only go-to way we can diagnose prostate cancer. 

But for now, with the current state of medical technology and scientific advancements, a tissue diagnosis is required. Dr. Wysock discusses that the tissue sample is needed and that is based on other tests that could help, like a PSA to determine if a biopsy is necessary. And if the investigation raises some flags, then that’s when the biopsy is required. That biopsy helps determine what type of prostate cancer you may be dealing with, and there are so many different options that need to be considered. 

Your PSA score is just one of many indicators that go into deciding whether you need a biopsy or not so you will want to make sure you consider every single factor you can. 

Now, you may be thinking biopsy means that a finger is being used with a needle over the top of it and blindly, it’s looking for the biopsy. We call this a finger guided biopsy. That was the process 40 years ago and now, medical professionals are using ultrasound technology which is now considered a blind biopsy. 

Now this can be considered majorly invasive but think of it more as an uncomfortable portion of the procedure, similar to going to the dentist office for dental work. It’s not fun but at the end of the day, it wasn’t the worst thing. 

In summary, you want to make sure you have all the facts and I have tons of research and posts available for you on drgeo.com

How Long Should You Wait to Get Your PSA After a Biopsy?

You need to be careful whenever you take a PSA that you haven’t had a contributing event to causing your PSA score to be elevated. 

Dr. Wysock recommends men to abstain from sexual activity for 72 hours before obtaining a PSA. This is incredibly important because even sexual activity will cause the PSA to go higher so imagine what would happen if you had 16 needles put into your prostate, your score would be through the roof!

A recommended time frame for PSA to be drawn would be six weeks for the first time in testing. It is possible that your PSA could be falsely elevated and please take that into consideration, but by three months you should absolutely be for most situations and can have lingering prostatitis and chronic prostatitis issues, which does contribute to the PSA rising for a long period of time. 

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Watch the full episode on the Dr. Geo Youtube channel. You can also listen to the audio version of this episode on Apple, Spotify, and wherever else you get your podcast.

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