Prostate Unlocked: The Urologist’s Guide to PSA, Screening, Prostate Cancer Risk, and Sexual Function

A PSA result can turn a routine visit into a maze of fear, conflicting advice, and irreversible choices. Prostate Unlocked gives men and their families a clear, physician-written map through prostate screening, diagnosis, treatment, and life after a prostate problem is found.

Board-certified urologist David Shusterman, MD, begins with the questions that should come before treatment. What does PSA actually measure? How do age, prostate size, inflammation, medications, family history, and remaining life expectancy change its meaning? When can repeating a test, using additional biomarkers, or obtaining a prostate MRI refine risk? When is a biopsy reasonable, and what can a Gleason score or Grade Group reveal about the cancer that matters?

The book explains how clinicians separate conditions that are often confused with one another, including benign prostate enlargement, prostatitis and chronic pelvic pain, bladder dysfunction, and prostate cancer. Readers learn how MRI, targeted biopsy, pathology, and objective risk assessment fit together—and why a diagnosis does not automatically mean immediate treatment.

For men with prostate cancer, Prostate Unlocked makes active surveillance, surgery, radiation, and other treatment pathways understandable without pretending that one choice is right for everyone. It explains how cancer risk, overall health, life expectancy, personal priorities, and treatment side effects should shape the decision.

Sexual function is not treated as an afterthought. The book addresses erections, ejaculation, urinary control, intimacy, and the tradeoffs men and their partners deserve to understand before choosing a procedure. It also explains why pelvic pain, urinary symptoms, and sexual problems may come from structures and mechanisms beyond the prostate itself.

With thirty-four illustrations and direct explanations drawn from clinical experience, Prostate Unlocked replaces panic with a diagnostic framework. It helps readers ask better questions, understand what their tests can and cannot prove, and work with their physicians toward decisions that protect both longevity and quality of life.