Prostate cancer patients struggle to ask all of their questions. Men often leave their doctor’s offices with one or more unanswered question….”I forgot to ask.” Even with lists of questions written out in advance, patients skip over one or more questions or simply fail to give voice to things that trouble them the most. Patients can be anxious and tongue tied. Malecare created a simple solution: The Prostate Cancer Question Tick List https://malecare.org/questions
A list of critical and personal questions that patients print out. Patients put check marks next to the questions that concern you, double checking their most important questions. They hand this pre-printed list to their doctor or even mail it in in advance of your appointment.
Patients who don’t own computers or printers can call their doctor’s office and ask them to print out and mail a copy in advance of the appointment. By handing a doctor a list of questions, and then basing a portion of the consult time on those questions, both patient and doctor can feel more confident that each has engaged in a more meaningful and productive shared decision making session. The time spent answering questions reduces miscommunication and anxiety and probably will lead to more meaningful health related outcomes for the patient.
Prostate cancer screening and early detection does NOT saves men’s lives. Let’s do the math. Per the USPSTF (a US government health agency): “A small benefit and known harms from prostate cancer screening” and “Only one man in 1,000 could possibly have a life saving benefit from screening”. However about 1.3 to 3.5 deaths per 1,000 from prostate blind biopsies. Also 5 men in 1000 died and 20.4% had one or more complications within 30 days of a prostatectomy. This does not include deaths and injuries from other procedures, medical mistakes, increased suicide rate, ADT therapy complications, heart attracts, depression, etc, caused by screening and treatments. Detection and overtreatment for prostate cancer has killed or destroyed millions of men’s lives worldwide from understated and multiple undisclosed side effects. The doctor that invented the PSA test, Dr. Richard Ablin now calls it: “The Great Prostate Mistake”, “Hoax” and “A Profit Driven Public Health Disaster”.
My story: http://www.yananow.org/display_story.php?id=1659
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYii98gcejA
https://medium.com/@drsadeghi/early-detection-disaster-4d4740ee5828 https://urologyweb.com/
https://urologyweb.com/uro-health-blog/ https://grossovertreatment.com https://medium.com/@bvorstman/is-psa-testing-for-prostate-cancer-bad-health-advice-7199618e56c5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IHE9jdCpn4
Recommended books:
The Great Prostate Hoax by Richard Ablin MD (the inventor of the PSA test)
The Big Scare, The Business of Prostate Cancer by Anthony Horan MD.