Prostate Home Test Kit
The prostate is a gland which sits beneath the bladder. Common prostate problems include an enlarged prostate, prostatitis and prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the UK. A home prostate test could alert you to the fact that you have a prostate problem.
Why Use A Self Test Kit For Prostate Health?
A self-test home test for prostate health can highlight if you have prostate cancer or any other problems with your prostate like an enlarged prostate or prostatitis-an infection of inflammation of the prostate gland.
There are two different ways you can test how healthy your prostate is-you can either carry out the test at home and get the results at home in 10 minutes or you can send the test away for analysis.
Who Should Take A Prostate Test?
In the UK about 1 in 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer. It isn’t known what the cause of prostate cancer is, but we do know there are certain risk factors. These are if you are aged 50 or older, you have a family history of prostate cancer and if you are black. You may also have some symptoms of prostate cancer and may be overweight or obese.
What Do You Get?
Self-check tests with results in 10 minutes
Your test will contain a test cassette, desiccant, dropper, buffer solution, and lancet to collect blood. The test will work in a very similar way to a pregnancy test, a line will appear in the viewing area that will indicate if you have elevated levels of PSA or not.
What Does A Self Test Do?
A home test requires you to prick your finger to collect blood and then add a buffer solution. This will enable you to see what your level of PSA is. PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) is a chemical that appears in your bloodstream in higher concentrations when your prostate gland is cancerous or if it is enlarged. This test cannot therefore definitely tell you if you have prostate cancer or not, but it can highlight that you need to speak to your GP and have further tests.
What Do You Get?
- Send away prostate test kit
- Finger prick for blood sample
- Laboratory analysis of your sample
- A quick turnaround, results are usually sent to you within 2 to 5 days
Results are reviewed by medical personnel and with a send away test if you test positive then a nurse will call you to discuss your results and what you need to do next.
PSA the prostate specific allergen can be affected be certain activities like vigorous exercise and by ejaculation. Activities like these should not happen for at least 48 hours before taking the test.
What Does A Send Away Prostate Home Test Do?
The biomarkers that many kits will look at in the laboratory include your total prostate specific antigen (PSA), free prostate specific antigen (PSA)and calculated prostate specific antigen ratio. The total PSA means the total volume of PSA in the blood, the free PSA refers to PSA in the blood that is not bound to other proteins and the final calculation is to look at total PSA versus free PSA, this ratio can help indicate the presence of prostate cancer.