Movember is an annual event involving the growing of moustaches during the month of November to raise awareness of men’s health issues, such as prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and men’s suicide. Find out more at uk.movember.com/mens-health/prostate-cancer.
In the UK, about one in eight men will get prostate cancer in their lifetime. It usually develops slowly so there may be no signs for many years. There is no screening programme, but the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test may help early detection.
There are three main risk factors for getting prostate cancer:
• Age: it mainly affects men aged 50 and over
• Family history of prostate cancer
• Being of Black or Afro-Caribbean background
You can check your risk in 30 seconds at www.prostatecanceruk.org/risk-checker.
It is important to know the signs and symptoms and to contact your GP if you notice a change:
• Difficulty starting to urinate or emptying your bladder
• A weak flow when you urinate
• Feeling that your bladder hasn’t emptied properly
• Dribbling urine after you finish urinating
• Needing to urinate more often than usual, especially at night
• A sudden need to urinate – you may sometimes leak before you get to the toilet
For further information and support see www.prostatecanceruk.org/ and www.nhs.uk/conditions/prostate-cancer/.
Follow Be Cancer SAFE Rotherham on Facebook: @BeCancerSafeRB and Twitter: @BeCancerSafe_RB.
