Prostate cancer screening for men without symptoms
Last Updated: Tuesday, 29 July 2025Who is this information for?
This information page is for men who are considering having a prostate cancer check, who do not have any urinary symptoms. If you DO have urinary symptoms (see below), you should book a doctors appointment for further assessment.
Cancer Screening
Some cancers, including prostate cancer, may not cause symptoms until they become more advanced. However, cancer treatment is much more successful if the cancer is found early. The NHS has screening programs to try to detect various cancers before they have started to cause symptoms that would prompt a patient to seek medical advice. These screening programs include breast, bowel and cervical cancers.
Prostate cancer
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men. It is more common as men get older, and in men with a strong family history of it (mainly a first degree relative- father, brother, son). Men who are of black / Afro-Caribbean ethnicity are also at increased risk.
Prostate cancer can be slow growing, and not cause any significant health risk. However, unfortunately on some occasions it can be more aggressive and dangerous. Not all prostate cancer requires treatment. Sometimes treatments can be used with the aim of ‘curing’ prostate cancer. Sometimes, the treatments used are designed not to cure it, but to ‘keep it at bay’ and stop it causing problems.
Currently there is no national NHS screening program for prostate cancer. This is because the tests that are currently available to screen men without urinary symptoms are not considered to be accurate enough to effectively identify and prevent prostate cancer. Therefore, you will not be ‘called up’ to have a prostate cancer test done. Research is underway to find a better test that could be used in a national cancer screening program, but this is still a work in progress.
However men WITH urinary symptoms should have a full assessment with their doctor, see below for more information.
PSA Test
The test that is currently available is called a Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) blood test. A raised level could mean that the man has prostate cancer. However, lots of other things can also cause the PSA level to be raised. This means the test is not very ‘specific’.
If the PSA is elevated, the man may be referred to a specialist for further tests to look for evidence of prostate cancer.
If the PSA is not elevated, there are currently no guidelines or consensus on how frequently it can be rechecked.
Who Can have a PSA test?
For men WIHOUT any urinary symptoms:
- Aged 50 years or older
- Aged 45 years or older with a strong family history of prostate cancer, or black / Afro-Caribbean ethnicity
Men who are younger than these age groups, and without any urinary symptoms are not entitled to an NHS PSA check.
Men of any age with urinary symptoms should book a GP appointment for a full assessment of those symptoms. This may include having a PSA check if the medical professional believes it is needed.
Other Important Information about the PSA Test
If you decide you want a PSA test, you must avoid vigorous exercise such as cycling, or having sex / masturbation in the 2 days before the blood test, as these activities can affect the result.
Men with urinary symptoms, that have not previously been assessed by a medical professional, should book an appointment for a full assessment of those symptoms, rather than just having a PSA test alone. These symptoms may include
- difficulty starting to urinate
- a weak or interrupted urine stream
- straining to urinate
- pain when urinating
- frequent urination, including at night
- urgency of urination
- Erection problems
- Seeing blood in the urine
Should I have a PSA test if I do not have any symptoms?
There is no right or wrong answer to this question, please see the links below which may help with your decision.
Getting your PSA test results
You should get your PSA test results in 1 to 2 weeks.
If you do not hear anything after a few weeks, contact the GP surgery or hospital that did the test.
If you have a raised PSA level, you may then be offered another PSA test to check if your levels are still high.
If they are still high, your GP may discuss referring you to a specialist for further tests, such as a biopsy and an MRI scan.