Are you at risk of getting Prostate Cancer (PC)? There’s loads of information out there so we’ve been doing some digging for you. There are some jaw-dropping stats associated with Prostate cancer (Sept 2018)
- 47,500 are diagnosed with Prostate cancer every year
- 11,500 a year die of Prostate cancer
- (and this is the most important one) 400,000 are living with or after Prostate cancer
Remember, Prostate cancer affects any person with a prostate. This includes heterosexual/homosexual men, trans people who were assigned male at birth and male- assigned non binary people. It also includes transgender/transsexual women who identify and live as a woman.
So what are the symptoms?
In the early stages there are often no signs or symptoms which is a real nuisance. You only get early signs if the cancer is growing near your urethra making it hard to start to pee. Of course, this symptom can also mean you just have an enlarged prostate and that it isn’t cancer.
Other symptoms may include
- difficulty starting to urinate or emptying your bladder
- a weak flow when you urinate
- a 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 urine before you get to the toilet.
So it’s really important to go and talk to your GP if you have any of these symptoms so they can be investigated and dealt with.
If the disease breaks out of the prostate or spreads to the other parts of the body, symptoms may include
- back pain, hip pain or pelvis pain
- problems getting or keeping an erection
- blood in the urine or semen
- unexplained weight loss.
We really don’t want to alarm you but it is important that you are aware so you can go and see your GP if you are in any way worried.
Can I check for it myself?
Unfortunately, you won’t know unless you visit a doctor. This isn’t a tumour you can check for like testicular cancer. If you are in one of the at-risk groups and/or have any of the symptoms we’ve highlighted then please go and talk to your GP.
Prostate Cancer UK have an excellent section on how the disease is diagnosed so check out this link https://prostatecanceruk.org/prostate-information/prostate-tests
What can I do to help myself?
A quick google search will come up with plenty of suggested foods to prevent the disease, but we recommend you exercise caution over extravagant prevention and cure claims. Eating a healthy diet, maintaining a good weight and being physically active may help. However, there’s no magic bullet for Prostate cancer in terms of suppliments, special diets etc.
Where can I get help and support?
Prostate Cancer UK will be able to help you with information if you are worried https://prostatecanceruk.org/
For your local exercise class https://www.fl-exercise.com/find-a-class/
Your GP