As you know by now, all this month we at Green Man Gaming are taking part in Movember, a charity and event set up to promote awareness of men’s health. If you don’t know that we’re doing that, where have you been, we’ve been talking about it all month.
You can see some info on what Movember is here.
But today we wanted to talk about the stats regarding men’s health, and just why focusing on this is deeply important.
Prostate Cancer
The facts about prostate cancer are simple. If you detect it early, you have a far better chance of surviving.
- If prostate cancer is detected early, you have a 98% chance of surviving past five years.
- If you leave it, and prostate cancer developers, you only have a 26% chance of surviving past five years.
All men are at risk of developing prostate cancer, and this increases if you’re in certain age groups, have a family history, or are in certain ethnic groups.
So it’s important that all men get checked out for prostate cancer, make an appointment with your doctor today!
But it’s also important to recognise the symptoms:
- A need to urinate frequently, especially at night
- Difficulty starting urination or holding back urine
- Weak or interrupted flow of urine
- Painful or burning urination
- Difficulty in having an erection
- Painful ejaculation
- Blood in urine or semen
- Frequent pain or stiffness in the lower back, hips, or upper thighs
So if you’re experiencing any of those, please, please get yourself checked out by a medical professional. It may be nothing, but what if it isn’t? You don’t want to be in the 26%.
Mental Health
Society has trained men to think they have to be strong, to not show emotion. This is incredibly damaging, and the effects of not being able to talk about mental health or fear over being seen as ‘weak’ can be seen in the stats.
- In the United Kingdom alone, 75% of all suicides are men.
- In the United Kingdom, suicide is the biggest killer of men under 45.
It’s not just suicide too, men are struggling to cope and struggling to live their lives.
This is where society needs to change, and a first step in that is removing the shame from mental illness. 2 out of 3 people report experiencing issues with mental health, so even if you don’t experience any issues yourself someone you know will be suffering.
Talking can be a huge help for issues with mental health, but for that to become a thing the stigma needs to be removed. But it’s ok! Talking can do that too.
So talk to your friends, ask them if they’re OK because we guarantee, some won’t be.
Testicular Cancer
Testicular cancer is highly treatable and effective treatments exist, but only if this is caught early. Similar to prostate cancer and mental health issues, getting your nuts checked out is embarrassing. But it doesn’t have to be.
This is just about safeguarding your life, imagine dying because you were too afraid to get checkup. That should be far more embarrassing than any examination of your testes.
What would they say at your funeral? ‘He died because of pride’? No-one wants that to be their epitaph.
Get a check up, get a check up soon. There’s no reason not to. Your life is infinitely more valuable.
Movember runs the entirety of November, and you can check out more information here.
