Breasts are a poor vehicle for women’s health: might men’s health now turn to bollocks, too?

But not, weirdly, in women’s health. Women’s health stays firmly wedded to tits n’ bits as the places where women’s health is located. Where do women with respiratory disease, kidney problems or maybe hypertension fit in? Do they not have proper women’s health issues, or real women’s health? When three times as many women die of heart disease than do of breast cancer and women are, by and large, oblivious to this, women should be working on some wiser questions about women’s health.  Certainly, breast cancer remains resolutely unsorted and I do not imply or think anything different but so do all the major health issues that afflict women.

 

I’ve already written about the visceral grip that breast cancer has in the consciousness of women as THE women’s health issue. Breast cancer is certainly a problem. Nowhere near solved. But 96% of women will die from something else. How much awareness of all those ‘something elses’ is there amongst women, especially the ‘elses’ that are fixable, avoidable or in dire need of some research progress to move them into those categories? 

 

The idea that women’s health begins and ends with tits and gynae is wrong. Women’s health is compromised by all kinds of other things but usually experienced in a particularly female way. And, yes, I am aware that this is also true of men and men’s health. That is my point. Men’s health not just balls and prostates, but it is in danger of turning into just that kind of bollocks.

 

Movember is that wildly successful global fundraising month 'in aid of' men’s health. More moustaches grow every year ‘for charity’ in line with the ambition and reach of the event. The UK version is just on the cusp of raising a whopping £10 million for 2010.  It’s a good news story for men’s health – and seeing how poorly men do in higher mortality, reduced longevity, differing and excess morbidity the world over, Movember is commendable

 

Except, except…

 

Think back to breast cancer. I don’t believe that there only unequivocal benefits to all women as a result of the elevation of breast cancer by breast cancer charities to the position it now holds in the public consciousness. So, unsurprisingly, I am prepared to share my scepticism that using prostate cancer as the poster boy for men’s health, as Movember does in the UK, is carefully reproducing a really bad idea. 

 

In this country Movember brings in money for The Prostate Cancer Charity, who will do excellent work on research, support and information with it. Unfortunately they will also do awareness raising and campaigning too, part of the comforting mulch that nurtures standard charitable activity in the cancer sector.

 

Prostate cancer is a particularly useless model for wider messaging on men’s health. It does have three things on its side. It’s common. Only men get it. And I’m the only one in the world who thinks this is an advantage – it is most commonly diagnosed in men in their 70s. (This could support some thoughtful campaigns about ageism or ageing and health in men. One thing we know for sure is that there will be more and more prostate cancer because more and more men are living long enough to ‘achieve’ a diagnosis.) As nobody else thinks that is an opportunity we are really only left with two.

 

It’s common and only men get it.  

 

So now, wash prostate cancer with the familiar tinge of breast cancer messaging and it becomes prostate cancer is common, so lots of men slide into thinking men’s health and prostate cancer are so intertwined that prostate cancer becomes the only health issue men need think about. Ta da!

 

Unfortunately, prostate cancer is really odd.  There is little a man can learn about prostate cancer that might give him a hint or two about how to consider the rest of his health. Bowel cancer would be a more informative model. But I forget – even though men get bowel cancer it is not a men’s health issue; same as in women… so neither women nor men need give it a second thought….?

 

Even though bowel cancer kills 8,700 men a year, only a smidge behind 10,000 men who die from prostate cancer, the current world view may think it’s not in his balls or prostate so it isn’t something for men to think about particularly, it’s not a men’s health issue. Doesn’t quite add up does it?

 

Bowel cancer often has early warning symptoms men could recognise and take to a GP. There’s a screening test that works well, it's the only robustly evidenced cancer screening available to men on the NHS, so take it up! There’s dietary advice that really does reduce the risk of getting it in the first place – on animal fat, calorie and alcohol intake. Some families have a history that might be worth looking into, so do that. 

 

Prostate cancer is not the story of men’s health. It’s an aspect of men’s health.  

 

I’d like the men at Movember to broaden their understanding of men’s health. Not all men with get prostate cancer and only the ones that do will benefit from fundraising for it, but all men want enough health to last their lifespan.

 

There is no need to reproduce all the mistakes of making breast cancer analogous with women’s health, instead of being just part of it.  I’m sure the Men’s Health Forum would help The Movember Foundation develop a new way of thinking about men’s health, alongside Diabetes UK, the British Heart Foundation, any bowel and lung cancer charity, the Obesity Forum, Alcohol Concern and any sports initiatives.

 

They could even innovate with some novel stuff for older men’s health. Movember could take the chance to avoid reproducing, for men, another disadvantage the breast cancer lobby unintentionally created for older women – who do not recognise their increased age as a risk factor for a breast cancer diagnosis.