If you're having urinary symptoms that are unusual or uncomfortable, seek medical help.
Your first point of contact for advice about urinary issues should be your GP. Contact your GP for an appointment if you've started to experience the following symptoms:
- needing to urinate more frequently, often during the night
- needing to rush to the toilet
- difficulty in starting to pee (hesitancy)
- straining or taking a long time while urinating
- weak flow
- feeling that your bladder has not emptied fully
Prostate cancer testing
There is no single, definitive test for prostate cancer, so your GP will discuss the pros and cons of the various tests with you to try to avoid unnecessary anxiety.
Your doctor is likely to:
- ask for a urine sample to check for infection
- take a blood sample to test your level of prostate-specific antigen (PSA)
- examine your prostate (digital rectal examination)
Will the GP send me for further tests?
This will depend on your test results and specifically on your PSA level. You can find out more about this at on the Prostate Scotland website.
More about PSA levels
You can read more about the guidelines, set by the SMC Scottish Medicine Consortium, that your doctor will follow in deciding whether or not you should be tested below.
Investigations and tests - Prostate Scotland
Learn more about Prostate Cancer on NHS Inform
