Us gents are pretty good at many things, but it turns out going to the doctor isn't one of them. There are a few reasons for this, so in the spirit of Movember - a month dedicated to men's health, I think it's time we explored the question. In no particular order, here's what I've found.
Reason #1. You're afraid you're going to get a finger in the butt. While this will almost certainly happen if you've got a problem with your bowels or blood in your stool, it also may be the case for many gent's in the 40+ age range as a screen for prostate and colon cancer.
While this type of screening (along with a PSA test via the blood) has been done for years, there are new and controversial recommendations calling into question their usefulness. US Preventive Services Task Force is a government citing evidence that prostate exams and PSA testing in "healthy men" with no symptoms have no net benefit in helping save lives. Read more here. While I understand what they're getting at (tens of thousands of men experience serious untoward effects, including death from treatment of less aggressive cancers that may not have ever killed them), I think most of us would still rather know if we had cancer. It also can come across in a way that can mislead men into thinking that they shouldn't ever be checked, which is not the intent of the recommendation.
The other thing that bothers me a bit about this "task force" is that they call themselves preventive. Early detection isn't the same thing as prevention. Early detection is great, but if you do your job right on the prevention side, ideally there would be nothing to detect.
So how can one prevent prostate cancer? That's a great question, and one we'll explore soon enough.
More soon,
Bryn
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