{"id":30982,"date":"2021-08-25T23:16:22","date_gmt":"2021-08-25T23:16:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.edrugstore.com\/blog\/?p=30982"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:47:45","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T21:47:45","slug":"understanding-the-prostate-specific-antigen-psa-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.edrugstore.com\/blog\/prostate-health\/understanding-the-prostate-specific-antigen-psa-test\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding the Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) Test"},"content":{"rendered":"

Overview:<\/strong> As men age, most will begin getting tested for level of prostate-specific antigen, or PSA. A high level can indicate an issue with the prostate, including prostate cancer. Men should know how the test is given and how often, what the difference between PSA and free PSA is, what happens if a test comes back with high numbers, and why doctors may not recommend a PSA test at all.<\/p>\n

What Is Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA)?<\/h3>\n

PSA is an enzyme produced by the prostate<\/a>. It helps liquefy semen so sperm can swim freely and may also make it easier for women to become pregnant by dissolving cervical mucus. The prostate is constantly producing PSA, so a low level of it is found in every man’s blood serum.<\/p>\n

Around age 25, your prostate will start slowly growing and producing more PSA. As a result, as men age, they can expect higher PSA levels<\/a>. Doctors generally view 4 nanograms per milliliter (ng\/mL)or less as normal.<\/p>\n

How is PSA Tested?<\/h3>\n

PSA is checked with a blood test. Since it’s fairly easy and noninvasive to do, some men opt to have a PSA test performed as part of their regular checkups as they age. Generally, a doctor will ask if you want to perform the test, for reasons we’ll get to.<\/p>\n

Why Does My Doctor Test For PSA?<\/h3>\n

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PSA is an early clue<\/a> that there may be an issue with the prostate. It’s not a silver bullet for determining possible cancers, so often a PSA test is paired with the digital rectal exam (DRE) to check for lumps, hardness, signs of enlargement, or inflammation. Depending on the results, a doctor may recommend another test for \u201cfree PSA.\u201d<\/p>\n

What’s the Difference Between PSA and Free PSA?<\/h3>\n

PSA comes in two forms<\/a>, \u201cbound,\u201d which means it’s tied to other enzymes, or \u201cfree\u201d which means it’s just floating through the blood. Over time, doctors have found that men with an elevated PSA level who have a high level of free PSA, more than 25% of an elevated total, are more likely to have a benign medical condition, like an enlarged prostate. Men with a low level of free PSA are more likely to have prostate cancer.<\/p>\n

How Accurate Is The PSA Test?<\/h3>\n

The question of accuracy is the crux of the issue some doctors have with the PSA test, because the short answer is, not very.<\/a> On its own, the test has an elevated rate of both false positives and false negatives, for a few reasons:<\/p>\n