One common treatment for prostate cancer is watchful waiting and here we examine just what this is and when it might be used.

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If, like a growing number of men, you have been having regular prostate screening which has picked up the possibility of prostate cancer, and this has subsequently been confirmed with a biopsy, then you are probably lucky enough to have caught the cancer early when it is still confined to the prostate gland and in what is called Stage I or Stage II. If this is the case then one possible course of treatment might be ‘watchful waiting’.

Some people feel that it is slightly odd to call watchful waiting a form of treatment because, as the name suggests, you simply watch the cancer and wait to see what happens. Other names for this approach are ‘observation’ and ’surveillance’. So when would this approach be appropriate?

As long as your cancer is confined to the prostate gland you are generally fairly safe and it is not until it threatens to spread beyond the prostate that your doctor will become concerned. So, if like many prostate cancer cases your cancer is both confined to the prostate gland and growing very slowly there is no need for immediate action and it is often safe to simply take some time and see how it develops.

Now if you are getting on in years and in this situation watchful waiting may well be a very good option because if the cancer is growing slowly enough there is a very good chance that you will die from old age, or some other condition, before it gets to be a problem. In these circumstances you might well feel that it would be silly to put yourself through surgery or radiation therapy for little if any real gain. So, in this case you would simply visit your physician at regular intervals for him to keep an eye on things and do nothing at all unless a problem arises.

If however you are still a reasonably young and otherwise fit man then watchful waiting might again be a sensible approach for a while but it may not always be such a good idea in the longer term, not least because, even though your cancer may be growing very slowly, you are still reducing your control of the disease the larger your cancer becomes and this may cause a problem if and when you are forced to deal with it.

Dealing with prostate cancer, whether by surgery or radiation treatment, is best done when the cancer is small and when you are in the best position to cope with treatment and recovery. The older you get the more likely it is that complications will arise from your treatment or that you will have difficulty in recovering following treatment.

Another very important consideration is the way in which you cope with watchful waiting mentally. For some men simply sitting back and doing nothing knowing that they have a cancer growing in their prostate gland can be very stressful indeed. However, for other men the fact that they have cancer doesn’t bother them at all as long as they know that it is slow growing, confined and being monitored regularly.

At the end of the day you must clearly be guided by your physician, but whether you choose to live with your prostate cancer or to seek treatment for it is, and always should be, very much a personal decision.

Find more about the wide range of prostate problems including everything from the digital rectal exam to advanced prostate cancer treatment.

By Donald Saunders

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Most men will find that when they get into their thirties and beyond they will be advised to go through a prostate exam when they have a physical checkup.While this is sensible there are a few problems and they may be hesitant to suffer the indignity of the procedure and need reassurance before they feel ready to agree.

There is a basic fear among many men of a probing examination of their rectum and these are concerns they have held all their lives. First is the fact that even by suggesting an exam it puts the idea in their head that they are not the young man they like to imagine they still are and they suddenly feel much older and less interesting to women.

You may also experience concerns that this will be an intrusive procedure that goes against a lot of your innermost feelings about personal privacy and it is not surprising that you might be uncomfortable about this. Well, it is an invasion of the privacy of your body but you wouldn’t tell your surgeon you were worried about privacy were you to let things get too far gone so you needed urgent invasive treatments.

So while you may well consider it an unwelcome and unpleasant thing to experience just accept that it is an important check that you should have done. You will be better off for having your prostate examined and this will either be reassuring or will help discover if there are any previously unnoticed problems.

I expect you will be wondering what is involved in the examination and what happens in the exam here is a guide showing what you might expect to find when you have the check. Your doctor will most likely explain to you that in order to perform the examination a finger must be inserted into the rectum to feel the prostate gland.

The procedure is made easier by getting the man to stand with feet apart and facing the examination couch and then leaning over onto it. Your doctor next prepares by putting on protective latex surgical gloves and proceed to lubricate their fingers with a slippery substance.

When the doctor begins inserting their finger a pressure sensation will be felt but there should be little discomfort so try to relax. Your doctor inserts their finger in the direction of your stomach at an angle feeling for an odd prostate glands size or shape.

It is usual for your doctor to wait a moment or two while the sphincter muscle relaxes and then further pressure may be applied. There might be an odd sensation as they move their finger around a little before it is removed and the doctor usually forewarns you that they are about to remove it.

Should you feel you would still like to know more to understand everything involved in this examination you can watch videos giving all sorts of information showing how the process of a prostate exam is carried out and it’s aims.

The reason for being advised to have a prostate exam is because of the high risk there is of men developing prostate problems when they reach a certain period of their life so the prostate exam is a quick and simple way of discovering anything unusual about the prostate.

If you are puzzled over why this is done or what your doctor may be trying to find with their finger during this probing examination. The standard size for a prostate gland would be not much bigger than a walnut and feel firm and slightly rubbery.

Having a prostate exam should be carried out during your physical for mature men. During the exam there may be some discomfort and it may feel rather embarrassing but it can be a help in discovering any potential prostate problems.

Understanding how important it is to discover any abnormality should convince you to agree to having a prostate exam. Without the exam taking place you might leave an undiscovered cancerous growth to develop without anyone knowing about it.

Catching cancer of the prostate early gives you a much better chance of success and your treatment may be less traumatic so finding it in the early stages could save your life all thanks to a prostate exam.

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