Defensive practice strategies have resulted in far too much medical testing in general. Routine pap smears and mammograms have all but disappeared.Now men are asking, “Can you get your attorney’s finger out of my anus?”

The American Cancer Society has not recommended routine prostate screening since the mid 1990’s. Moreover, they have recently questioned the merits of PSA testing in the absence of identified disease. It is not that prostate cancer has disappeared. However, there is a recognition that the greatest increased risk is amongst those with recurrent inflammation and infection of tissues in the vicinity of the prostate; itself a multifaceted topic of discussion.

The American Urological Association and the American Cancer Society continue to dance around the merits of digital rectal examinations and PSA testing, relative to age of inception, subsequent frequency and who is most in need of testing. So doctors, pause when your patient states “Testing is invasive, I’m not going to sue if we miss something, and have you seen the size of that guy’s hand?”

Contemporary health, fitness and care should be consistent with contemporary knowledge.

Tags: defensive medicine, medical testing, prostate examination and testing, PSA testing and prostate health

This entry was posted on Friday, March 5th, 2010 at 1:39 am and is filed under health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.