by WAYNE SWAN
Most men will tell you that September is all about footy finals, but what they won’t tell you is that it’s also the month of raising awareness for prostate cancer…
I’m sure Mamamia readers are well aware of the Man Flu, or as my wife likes to call it ‘an exaggerated cold’. It’s the one ‘sickness’ that us men will constantly complain, whine and tell everyone about.
Man Flu aside, I’m sure you know that men don’t like talking about their health, let alone getting tested for an illness they may not even have, particularly prostate cancer.
And I would know because I almost paid the biggest price a person can ever pay for that ignorance. I almost paid with my life.
Like many men I didn’t know what the symptoms of prostate cancer were and I never thought it would happen to me.
At the age of 67 my dad passed away from prostate cancer after an excruciating battle. I was about 35 at the time, and watching him lose that painful battle was an extremely difficult time for me as it was for my family. Like most men at that age I got on with things, concentrated on my career and starting a family. I don’t think I ever thought about being diagnosed with it, I didn’t even know what the symptoms were!
But about 12 years later it happened to me. I was diagnosed with prostate cancer.
I still remember the day my doctor called me and told me the symptoms I had been noticing were due to the same disease that my father had lost his life to. It’s fair to say I was shit-scared. Scared because I saw the pain my dad had gone through, but mostly terrified about having to sit down and tell my wife and kids that I had cancer.
I was diagnosed by way of a Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) blood test.
The doctor gave me three options: to do nothing (I ruled that out); have immediate treatment which involved some radical surgery and risks, or to wait a while. I chose surgery.
I’m lucky, early detection saved my life, but for many men it’s a different story.
Each year in Australia we see around 20,000 new diagnoses of prostate cancer which kills close to 3,300 men. This exceeds the number of women who die from breast cancer annually. Each day about 32 men learn that they have prostate cancer, and one man every three hours will lose his battle with it.
Awareness is the first step, so I’d encourage you bring it up with the men in your life – whether it’s your husband, boyfriend, dad or brother. Now I’ll admit that prostate cancer isn’t exactly the most appealing topic to be talking about, but there’s nothing appealing about being diagnosed with it.
A lot of blokes don’t want to even think about it because they think it automatically means reduced sexual function.
In the first place, that’s not necessarily right. And in the second place, as I often tell blokes when I’m out and about spruiking awareness of this deadly disease, you can’t have sex in a coffin!
[Although when I put this reality to one bunch of blokes on a worksite a few years ago, one guy up the back piped up: I have!]
Sometimes us blokes just need a bit of a nudge – so start by sending him a link to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia’s website http://www.prostate.org.au and get the conversation about prostate cancer started today. Early detection and a PSA test saved my life; I know it can save many more.
Wayne Swan is the Acting Prime Minister and Treasurer in the Australian Government.
Are the men in your life diligent about medical check ups? What do you do to encourage them to go to the doctor and get checked?
Top Comments
Open letter to Wayne Swan appealing for funding of new prostate cancer Drug, Abiraterone
“As a fellow prostate cancer sufferer, I have just sent an email to you as Federal Treasurer, asking you to seek Cabinet approval to list the hugely expensive but life-extending drug Abiraterone acetate (Zytiga) on the PBS. In Australia, there are many desperately ill prostate cancer patients who have failed chemotherapy and need this drug to survive longer but, at $3,300 per month, they can’t afford it. Incurable patients with the advanced cancer who have not yet exhibited metastases also need it to delay the ravages of chemotherapy and live longer.
You have provided $691m for new listings in the recent Federal Budget. The TGA has approved the drug (with conditions). The FDA US and NHS UK have approved it. Many seriously ill Australians with other conditions are able to obtain expensive life-enhancing medications on the PBS but not these men. Such discrimination is unjust and sends them to a painful death sooner. Readers of this could help them … READ MORE: www.prostate-cancer-medicat...
Getting the numbers on this petition could hasten the process. Over 4,900 interested persons have now signed it. I ask all who haven’t signed it to do so and everyone to circulate this request to their contacts. See petition at http://chn.ge/QsuSHc
Wayne seems to be suggesting that treatment for Prostate cancer doesn't necessarily mean reduced sexual function. True but a 50% rate of erectile disfunction is not insignificant. While 3,300 men a year still die from Prostate cancer (which PSA testing hasn't reduced much, if at all), the vast majority of Prostate cancers don't kill anyone. I think the future lies in better imaging of cancers to more accurately determine how dangerous they are.