Men don’t like talking about their erectile dysfunction. I am making an exception.

Yesterday, I found out from my urologist that my bone scan showed nothing irregular. My prostate cancer has spread outside my prostate, but not far. It is advanced, but not immediately life-threatening.

Had he not caught it in time, things would have gotten much worse. He caught it in time because of my ED.

I began noticing a problem last February. At age 75, I figured it was statistically commonplace, but only for other guys. Not me.

I made up my mind not to pay retail for any ED pill. I started looking into Canadian pharmacies that sell knock-offs at 10% of the price. I also started looking into non-prescription remedies. I tried some. They did not work.

Then, about two months later, I began having urinary problems. It happened overnight. Iron bladder one night. “I gotta go! Now!” the next day.

That bothered me. Two symptoms. What was going on?

I thought I should see my physician. But my physician is a woman. She replaced my male physician, who retired 18 months ago. I was squeamish about having her do a rectal exam. But then I remembered Ron Paul. He is an obstetrician/gynecologist. His patients, all female, kept coming back. I thought: “If they can deal with this, so can I.”

I told her that I was concerned about cancer. She agreed.

She conducted the exam. “You have an enlarged prostate. It’s one of the largest I have ever encountered.” She had done this before.

She immediately scheduled a PSA blood test for me. I mean immediately. I walked out of her office, and I was in the blood test room five minutes later. The hospital is a 90-second drive from the clinic. It was 4:30 p.m. on a Friday afternoon.

I got into a urologist’s office the following Monday. This was amazingly fast.

There, I learned that I had a PSA of 45. He said: “This is ten times higher than the warning number.” In short, it was high. He then scheduled an MRI.

A shot in the dark.

Next came the biopsy. Cancer was in every sample. Gleason score: 9 out of 10 in every sample. Bad news.

My father had prostate cancer. He beat it. I had not known that it tends to be hereditary. I should have known.

If I had not had ED, I might not have started thinking about medication. That was a warning signal. Then came the urination problem. The two together bothered me enough to schedule my medical exam.

If I had not gone to my physician and asked for the exam, she would not have set up the blood test and the meeting with the urologist.

Here is my recommendation. If you have ED, get medical advice. Do not sit around waiting for things to get better. They could get worse.

Maybe your wife was initially grateful for the respite, but is now telling you to see your physician. Take her advice.

If your exam indicates that it’s just plain old ED, check into Canadian pharmacy prices. I don’t believe in paying retail for anything.

Written by Gary North and published at Specific Answers ~ July 15, 2017.

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