B.C. men will have to continue to pay for prostate cancer screening.

The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal has rejected a claim by Laurence Armstrong, a Victoria lawyer, that men face discrimination in having to pay for prostate specific antigen tests, while women get mammograms and Pap smears for free. The decision was published Thursday. 

Armstrong told CBC News that he was annoyed at having to pay $30 for every PSA test recommended by his doctor.

"I'd be sitting in the lab waiting room watching the women go in for mammographies, not paying," said Armstrong, who decided to take the matter to the human rights tribunal, which heard the case in 2006.

Test's effectiveness questioned

After considering several expert opinions, tribunal member Kurt Neuenfeldt dismissed the claim, citing questions about the effectiveness of the PSA test as a general method of screening for prostate cancer.

Neuenfeldt determined that "the decision to fund cancer screening tests for women, but not for men, is not based on the fact Mr. Armstrong is male, but on the questionable scientific support for the efficacy of PSA screening as a population-wide screening device, and its consequences."

Armstrong, 59 at the time of the hearing, said his doctors have recommended PSA screening for him since he was in his mid-40s. He's had no symptoms of prostate cancer.

Susan O'Reilly, vice-president of the BC Cancer Agency, said the ruling makes sense.

"The women being screened either for breast cancer with mammograms or cervical cancer with Pap tests, there's compelling information to tell us if you diagnose these cancers early you will cure more people and their life expectancy will, as a result, be much better," she said.

"In the situation with this blood test for prostate cancer, we still don't have that evidence," she said.

The test measures a substance produced by the prostate, called prostate specific antigen. It's especially useful for monitoring established prostate cancer and as a diagnostic aid, in combination with other tests, for early detection of prostate cancer in men with urinary symptoms or suspicious digital rectal examination findings, according to the cancer society's web site.

Armstrong was disappointed with the ruling and said he will consider an appeal.

With files from The Canadian Press