A stigma on the prostate
Much as I have openly written about my
account of being diagnosed with malignant prostate cancer, a Twitter exchange
between two young black men left me wondering about the kind of stigma that
associates with situations we as human beings might have little control over.
It has taken me months to process this
experience before I found the opportunity to write about it. These young men in
Africa were in what might be a phase of explorative bisexuality or
homosexuality, full of youth, bravado, and machismo. One should not deny the
youth their virility, vigour, and vitality.
Rather a living older man
However, they were not content with
their good fortune without finding others to pull down to feel better about
themselves. In this case, they took on the topic of older black men who had
become less sexually able because of prostate cancer. The exchange was in jest,
levity, and mockery; it cut quite deep.
Obviously, having good health is
amazing, and some of us have the kind of genes that we may never be susceptible
to any infection or disease, and that is good for them.
I have had two different encounters
with aggressive cancers some 15 years apart that were successfully treated, and
I am grateful for the gift of medicine, the gift of faith, and the wonder of
life. I have been very fortunate.
Youthful delusions of invincibility
Then again, we must be careful of the
hallucinatory qualities of the elixir of youth that confers invincibility
bordering on immortality on us, such that we forget the occasional frailties of
the human organism and the malfunctioning of parts of the human body that could
present with life-threatening conditions, easily ignored until they become
untreatable.
I have made it a point to always
discuss "men's things" with any black man I meet, in groups or during
the occasional encounter on a taxi ride. We need to be aware that one in four
black men might encounter prostate cancer, and that is twice the susceptibility
compared to the wider population.
Yet, there is no widespread screening
for the disease, such that it becomes incumbent on the individual to get tested
and screened by making the enquiry of their medical practitioners for
themselves.
Health trumps sexual prowess
Whilst doing this, we must have the
mindset of not being embarrassed about seeking a medical opinion on the health
of our private parts and welcoming whoever has the medical expertise to ensure
we are in the clear. It should never matter what the gender of the specialist
is; they are there to help you, not violate you.
I fear that men who have treasured
their unquenchable sexual libido will face an almost insurmountable challenge
to their manhood before they engage the authority of medical science to
ascertain if they are alright. The time wasted in addressing this personal
battle can be quite costly.
I faced up to my doctor to address
out-of-range results of blood tests, insisted that whatever it was be seen to,
and tacked on the Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) test because I fell in the
cohort of those who might be susceptible. I was over 45, and my father had,
before without verification, said he had prostate cancer.
Be a man, get checked
What matters is if you are black, over
45, or have had male or female members of your family diagnosed with cancer,
you need to go for checkups.
Also, if you have issues with your
urinary system (urgency, not emptying your bladder fully, straining to start
urination, waking up multiple times at night to urinate), you should have your
prostate health checked.
Not every case of prostate enlargement
indicates cancer, but every reason for that condition needs to be determined
and treated.
Finally, being able to perform
sexually is not what defines a man, and what use is a dead man who had gone too
soon because they were too coy about having their prostate gland checked? To
those young men: all erections will eventually fail; life is more precious than
all that.
References
Blog - Photons
on the Prostate - A year from starting radiotherapy
Blog - A
prostate cancer diagnosis, one year on
Blog - Photons on the Prostate - XVIV - I Just Can't Wait
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