Gordon Clay here. This month is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month. Did you know that a man is 33% more likely to get prostate cancer than a woman is to get breast cancer? It's true.
There will be over 2.8 million new cases of prostate disease reported in 2010. For over 217,000 men, it will be prostate cancer. That's one in every six men, and 35% will be under the age of 65.
Over 32,000 of those men will die because they didn't get an examination or didn't act soon enough.
That equates to one man dieing every 17 minutes of every day from Prostate Cancer.
Someone you know may be affected. Your husband, father, son, brother, grandfather, or friend.
Are they 40-75 or over 35 and African American or their father or brother had Prostate Cancer? Encourage them to get tested! Both a PSA and a DRE.
Four important things to remember before getting tested
1. Be sure that you're rested.
2. Have no sexual activity for 72 hours before the test.
3. Got a cold? Put it on hold.
4. Either have your PSA test before the DRE or delay taking a
PSA test for 48 hours AFTER you have had your DRE
test.
Don't let it be said at your eulogy, "He was too afraid or embarrassed to get tested."
Check out www.prostatecancerawarenessweek.org or the shorter version at www.pcaw.org for more information They both work.