September, time for men to understand prostate cancer
What you need to know:
- Awareness campaigns against cancer have mainly targeted women.
- There is growing concern that men are often left put in the cancer programs partly because they are less involved.
- This September is meant to help men learn cancers that affect them.
September is prostate cancer awareness month. A month that we use to commemorate our efforts to fight and combat prostate cancer, a type of cancer that always strikes men which initiates in the prostate glands, that eventually cause the prostate to enlarge.
Unlike n the past, prostate cancer is now a common disease. A recent report released by CDC highlights that almost three to four out of 10 men in sub-Saharan Africa are at risk to get prostate cancer at some points in their lives.
It reminds us that there is need to share information as much as we can about this type of cancer to make our people aware of the disease, and that is why every year, we dedicate the month of September to raise awareness against prostate cancer. Last week I was involved in the community event that was conducted by one of the health care providers in town.
It was actually about educating people on all that they need to be aware of, on men’s health issues, and that’s when the topic of prostate cancer popped up, only to realise that, what majority of people know about this disease, is just a myths instead of the facts
Prostate cancer has now become one of the common men’s issues.
But do men have what it takes to be aware of it? Actually, the obvious answer is no given what I have learnt in the recent past.
I therefore urge men to try their best to look for the appropriate information about prostrate cancer
Dear men, September is your month, a month that gives you a chance to access all the information about prostate cancer.
Today therefore, before the month ends, let me share with you what exactly you need to know about prostate cancer and I am pretty sure this will help you unlock all the myths you have probably had in the past.
Prostates are not cancerous, only when they enlarge. Yes, prostate cancer is the disease. We can simply define it as cancer that grows in the prostates. Just like the way we define breast cancer, a cancer that starts growing in the breast tissues. By this fact you will come to realise that there are two things that people tend to mix together, which are prostate, and cancer.
It should better be understood that, prostate is just an organ that is naturally part of the male anatomy.
But only when it enlarges probably due to the presence of cancerous cells, that’s when it becomes cancerous and that is when we can say someone has prostate cancer.
I have seen a lot of men denying to have prostates thinking that it is a disease. It sounds funny sometimes. So dear men, we all have prostates, it’s nature.
Men should not be fooled by age, Prostate cancer is not just an old man’s disease. it’s true that, the risk of getting prostate cancer, increases with age.
But it should not be perceived that only old men get prostate cancer. regardless of age, men can get prostate cancer through variety of risk factors regardless of ages. Some of the risk factors can be hereditary and lifestyle factors. We therefore urge men to start prostate cancer screening as early as from the age of 35 at least twice a year.
