BOOKS: PAUL FREEMAN AND MORE

Edited by Jane M Ussher, Janette Perz and BR Simon Rosser

Prostate cancer is the most diagnosed cancer in Australia. However, while diagnoses are increasing, deaths from prostate cancer are falling and recovery rates are improving.

One of the complicating factors in treating it is that here are a number of decisions that need to be made. Surgery or radiation therapy? Does action need to be taken urgently or is there time to “watch and act”?

And for gay and bisexual men the experience is complicated by a medical establishment – GPs, specialists, surgeons – who assume all their patients are heterosexual.

This book, at over 350 pages, published by Harrington Park Press, is a thorough and academic report. While its primary audience appears to be other academics, social researchers and those in the medical profession, it’s an excellent resource for gay and bisexual men living with prostate cancer. Not only is there detailed information about the process from diagnosis to recovery, the editors have highlighted key concerns for G and B men, as well as trans women, included in chapters like Threat To Gay Identity And Sexual Relationships, My Partner Is My Family and Sexual Rehabilitation.