An elderly male tells you for the first time in his life he has trouble passing his stools. He has previously had problems with urination. (He gets up often at night to urinate, takes a long time to urinate, and then has to return to the bathroom shortly after he voids to urinate again.) You advise him:

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The new onset of a symptom late in life is not likely the result of a natural physiological process but rather of a disease. Constipation may be caused by colon cancer, but it might also result from a new medication, a change in diet, or some other process that merits evaluation by a health care professional. Alarm symptoms, such as bleeding, weight loss, fevers, anorexia, or jaundice (among many others) are often clinically important, but they tend to be symptoms that suggest a disease is quite advanced. Waiting for alarming symptoms to arise may delay diagnosis and treatment.

An Elderly Male Tells You for the First Time in His