What items need to be checked in men’s health examination?

If you are a young man aged 20-40 with no underlying diseases, it is enough to do basic blood routine, urine routine, liver and kidney function, fasting blood sugar and lipids, blood pressure, chest X-ray, abdominal ultrasound every year, plus an andrology-specific prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and external genital examination. It covers most risks. If you are over 40 years old or have a family history of smoking, alcoholism, or chronic diseases, gastrointestinal endoscopy, low-dose chest CT, prostate ultrasound, and carotid artery ultrasound are enough. There is no need to buy those "high-end whole-body cancer prevention packages" that cost tens of thousands.

In the past two months, I accompanied Fa Xiao, who works as an Internet operator, for a physical examination. He is only 32 and stays up late every day drinking iced Coke. As soon as he arrived at the physical examination center, he went straight to the VIP package area of 12,000 yuan and said that he wanted to check all the tumor markers for fear of missing something. As a result, the old doctor who attended the consultation stopped him directly, saying that he had neither a family history of cancer nor long-term exposure to harmful chemicals or radiation. It was a waste of money to check for those unpopular tumor markers. If there were any abnormal basic conditions, there would have been signals long ago. In the end, he chose the basic program I mentioned above, which cost him less than a thousand dollars. In the end, it was found that uric acid and triglycerides were high. He just went back to adjust his diet and drink less milk tea and beer, which saved thousands of wasted money.

Speaking of this, some people must have murmured, are those examinations in the men's department particularly embarrassing? To be honest, many of my friends resisted digital prostate examination at first. They always felt embarrassed. In fact, if the whole process is faster, it can be completed in one minute. For men under 40 years old, digital examination combined with PSA can basically detect early prostate problems, which is much more reliable than buying thousands of kidney health supplements. By the way, there is a fierce quarrel on the Internet now about whether young people should routinely check PSA. One group thinks that if you are in your 20s and have no symptoms, you don’t need to check it, which is a waste of medical resources. The other group thinks that prostate problems are getting younger and younger, and if you get it checked early, you can rest assured. In fact, there is really no need to worry. It means that you sit for a long time every day, always hold in your urine, or you already have minor problems with frequent urination and urgency. Even if you are in your 20s, there is nothing wrong with adding a PSA. It only costs a few dozen yuan to buy a reliable one. If you have no symptoms, just wait until you are 40 years old and have a routine check-up every year. No matter what choice you choose, it is not wrong.

Another point to note is that men with a long-term smoking history or a family history of lung cancer should not be obsessed with chest X-rays. I met a 45-year-old brother at the physical examination center last year. He has smoked for more than 20 years and only does chest X-rays for his annual physical examination. As a result, last year it was found that the lung nodules were serious enough to require surgery. The doctor said that if he had changed the chest X-ray to a low-dose chest CT three to five years earlier, the nodules would have been discovered as soon as they grew. Regular follow-up would be enough, and there would be no need for surgery.

In fact, to put it bluntly, the more expensive the physical examination, the better. It is just like buying shoes, the ones that fit your feet are the most useful. Don’t listen to the salesman and do a bunch of useless items. Not to mention the money spent, if there is a real problem, it may not be found out.