Has anyone's doctor ever have difficulty performing a prostrate exam?

[David37]

I turned 50 last year and was scheduled for my first prostrate exam or digital rectal exam during my annual physical in January of this year, however, the exam ended up being a little bit than how I expected it to be. My doctor told me that he wasn't able to complete the exam because his finger wasn't able to reach far enough to exam my prostrate. Well, to be honest with you, I was a bit confused by what my doctor had told me because I have never heard of that happening before. Also, my doctor told me that the blood test that I was going to take will reveal whether or not there's any indication of cancer in my body. .....Okay, I'm sorry, but once again I was a bit confused. I thought that the prostrate exam served more than the purpose of finding out if a man has prostrate cancer or not. Also, if a blood test serves the purpose of revealing whether or not a man has prostrate cancer, then what's the whole point in men having to get prostrate exams when they turn 50 and what's the whole point in the stressing the importance of a yearly prostrate exam? Also, has anyone else encountered this same problem when having a prostrate exam or heard of anyone else having this problem while having a prostrate exam?  

[zupk]

PSA blood test may not be accurate, especially when you have an infection. My two PSAs indicated elevated level but turned out that it was all because of a urinayr tract infection. My third PSA came out just fine. The prostate exam was ok, so I am not worried about it anymore.

I would also suggest visiting at least one other doctor, perhaps with larger fingers :)

[David37]

Thanks, keyzersoce, about the infon concerning the need for both tests. Additionally, I was also,looking for others' opinions as to what they thought about the doctor telling me that he couldn't complete the exam because he wasn't able to reach far enough with his finger(or digit) to touch my prostate. I have my opinion as to what was really going on, but my opinion isn't always right and I wanted to get other people's opinons/perpectives on the matter. Also, I wanted to mention that I'm not that big of man let's say like the wrestler Andre the Giant(may he rest in peace). I'm only about 5'10" and around 250 lbs. Addtionally, everything that I've every read about the prostate exam or DRE says that it is a very easy procedure to perform for a doctor.

[keyzersoce]

I'm sure your doctor is talking about the PSA blood test. This measures the level of Prostate specific antigen in your blood; low=good, high=bad. However, there is an issue of false positives and negatives with the test, so doctors also perform the finger test.