Just as puzzling, the condition can be limited to a single episode or can occur repeatedly over several weeks or months before disappearing completely.ĭoctors have been diagnosing hematospermia for centuries - even the Greek physician Hippocrates, who lived from around 460 to 377 B.C., described it.
In many instances, it has no apparent cause. While it’s true that hematospermia may indicate prostate cancer or another urologic disease, that’s usually not the case. It conjures fears of cancer or a sexually transmitted disease. “Well,” he said, “my wife and I had sex last night, and she noticed that there was blood in my semen.”įew things alarm a man and his partner more than seeing bloody ejaculate, a condition called hematospermia, or hemospermia. “What makes you think that you might have prostate cancer?” I asked. “I haven’t had a PSA test recently, and I’ve never had a biopsy,” he replied. After a moment of stunned silence, I asked him about his prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level and whether he had had a biopsy. “I think I might have prostate cancer,” he said quietly. An anxious colleague recently came into my office and closed the door.
