Putting health at risk isn’t manly... so see the doctor
Tomorrow is World Cancer Day and it is high time men start taking their wellbeing seriously, says OWEN SHARP
ONE OF THE lasting memories I have of being a student nurse in Glasgow in the early 90s comes from the time I spent on the cancer wards. Many of the patients I cared for were tough, workingclass Glaswegian dockers or labourers who although scared out of their wits, were facing their own mortality with incredible stoicism and bravery.
Some had clearly never spoken to anyone about their health for a very long time. The real tragedy for these men was that things could have been very different – if only they had sought help earlier.
Many still have the idea that it’s not “manly” to talk about their health problems, even when it comes to their cancer risk.
And it has been estimated that 80 per cent of men won’t go and see a doctor unless their partner convinces them to do so.
According to the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), which backs World Cancer Day, the result is that men often aren’t being diagnosed with serious or life-threatening illnesses until it’s too late. This is one of the reasons that in the UK, on average, men die four years earlier than women. One man in every five dies before the age of 65.
It doesn’t have to be this way. If prostate cancer – the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men – is detected early, then the chance of surviving beyond five years is 98 per cent. If it’s not discovered until the disease has already spread to the bones, those odds drop to 26 per cent.
For men under 50, the number one cancer risk is testicular cancer. Again, if it is caught and treated early, the odds of survival are very high. But men will only notice something is not right if they are vigilant about regularly checking themselves.
If we’re going to improve the length and quality of men’s lives then we really need to start shifting these outdated attitudes and begin taking this issue seriously.
As survival rates improve, there are also growing numbers of men living with the after-effects of their cancer. Male cancers are particularly cruel because they strike at the very heart of what it means to be a man.
Prostate cancer treatment in the form of hormone therapy, surgery and radiotherapy comes with major side effects such as urinary and bowel incontinence and sexual dysfunction. But perhaps because men tend to be stoical about their treatment – they suffer in silence and don’t ask for help – they often get ignored.
There is currently a massive gap between the best and worst support men receive, and depression and contribute to the breakdown of relationships. Yet men are often made to feel that they should be grateful to be alive, regardless of the ongoing effects of their treatment.
Only last week, a 70-year-old prostate cancer survivor who had approached his GP for advice on sexual problems, told me that his doctor’s reply was: “Well, what do you expect? You’re on hormone therapy.” It isn’t right that any man – whatever his age – should be faced with that kind of brutal and unsympathetic response.
IN A BID to tackle the problem, the Movember Foundation has launched an online programme through its TrueNTH initiative for men living with prostate cancer. It provides personalised strategies to help men improve their sexual wellbeing during and after prostate cancer treatment.
We hope it will go some way towards plugging the gap and providing better support for men struggling with sexual dysfunction after cancer.
But we also want men to have the confidence to speak honestly and without embarrassment about their side effects.
There’s nothing “manly” about ignoring symptoms and whilst stoicism is an admirable quality, there is courage too in taking action.
We’re asking men to get to know what’s normal for their bodies and go to the doctor when something isn’t right. Suffering in silence is never the answer.
Owen Sharp is chief executive of the Movember Foundation (movember.com), the leading global men’s health charity.
The TrueNTH online self-management programme for men with prostate cancer is at prostate.lifeguidewebsites.org