06/04/2024
June is Men’s Health Awareness Month!
To stress the importance of conditions heavily affecting men’s health, we are talking about benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and prostate cancer today. BPH is a condition where the prostate starts to grow after the age of 25 creating an enlarged prostate. Those who develop BPH will usually have some or all of these symptoms: frequently feeling the need to use the bathroom, frequently using the bathroom, trouble starting a urine stream or a weak or interrupted urine stream, consistently waking up during the night to go to the bathroom, urinary retention, incontinence, and pain after ej*******on or during urination. Men who are older than 40, have a family history of BPH, obesity, any heart and circulatory disease, type 2 diabetes, lack physical exercise, or erectile dysfunction are at an increased risk of BPH. The two major ways to screen for BPH include a digital re**al exam, where a medical doctor places a lubricated, gloved finger into the re**um to check the prostate, and a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test.
Prostate cancer is cancer within the prostate that could eventually spread to the rest of the body. In its early stages, prostate cancer has no symptoms, so screening methods like digital re**al exams and PSA blood tests could help provide an early diagnosis, along with other methods. The earlier the diagnosis, the better the chance the disease can be treated. As prostate cancer progresses, symptoms are very similar to BPH, which is why it is important to talk to your doctor if you are experiencing any symptoms listed above. Further advancement of prostate cancer can lead to the cancer spreading to other parts of the body which is also why early detection is important. Those at an increased risk of prostate cancer include older individuals, those with a family history of prostate cancer, and Black men. Black men are 60% more likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer and twice as likely to die from it. These statistics can be attributed to the fact that Black men may have lower access to healthcare, lower prevalence of PSA screenings, and less quality care that leads Black men to be diagnosed at later stage and to receive inadequate treatment regimens. While more research needs to be performed to find solutions to some of these problems, performing more PSA blood tests and performing them earlier has the possibility of decreasing the number of Black men who die from prostate cancer.
If you or someone you know are at an increased risk of either condition or has the symptoms we discussed today, talk to your doctor or local pharmacist about the possibility of screening for BPH and prostate cancer. To learn more visit the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/prostate/basic_info/index.htm) or the National institutes of Health’s (https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/urologic-diseases/prostate-problems/prostate-enlargement-benign-prostatic-hyperplasia ) websites.
(Created by Student Pharmacist, Alec Latzke)
Info: https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/prostate/basic_info/index.htm
https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/urologic-diseases/prostate-problems/prostate-enlargement-benign-prostatic-hyperplasia
https://www.mountsinai.org/health-library/special-topic/prostate-cancer-screenings #:~:text=Digital%20re**al%20exam%20(DRE)%20is,least%20in%20the%20early%20stages.
Image: https://www.whas11.com/video/news/health/mens-health-awareness-month-prostate-cancer/417-3509a93d-19de-45a2-819f-c78a63869b45
