Women do it all the time and men are encouraged to as well. Conduct self-exams for cancer. Only men aren't heeding the call.
"Women are very comfortable doing breast examinations, men are less comfortable in a testicular examination," says Dr. Meir Daller, urologist on Lee Memorial Health System's medical staff.
It is very simple- similar to breast exams; men should be feeling for a lump.
While prostate cancer is mostly thought of as an older man's disease, testicular cancer is found more often in young men. It is the most common malignancy in males under 35, and also one of the most treatable. If the cancer hasn't spread, the five-year survival rate is about 99%.
"Majority of the patients are cured by the surgery, or the chemotherapy or the radiation therapy. But again it's the disease process - it depends when we caught the cancer. Most men are embarrassed by the cancer and presented to the doctor quite late," says Dr. Daller.
Taking a queue from the ladies who de-stigmatized breast cancer screening, men are being empowered to take matters into their own hands.
"It's the easiest exam to do, every man and every person knows how his body feels, what's normal and what's abnormal," says Dr. Daller.
View More Health Matters video segments at leememorial.org/healthmatters/
Lee Memorial Health System in Fort Myers, FL is the largest network of medical care facilities in Southwest Florida and is highly respected for its expertise, innovation and quality of care. For nearly a century, we've been providing our community with everything from primary care treatment to highly specialized care services and robotic assisted surgeries.
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