Check your Nuts.

Dragan

……nope, I ain't talking about healthy fats. I am talking about those little jewels you value so much on a Friday night when you finally convince that chick in the club that despite your inability to hold a decent conversation your worth entertaining for half an hour, but only if you promise not the cry after sex. If it makes you feel any better you'll end up feeling empty and satisfied…..she won't……feel satified that is. But now that I have put the kebosh on many the internet Romeo, whats my point?

Dudes don't seem to give a **** about cancer. I will go so far as to say that Ireland, as a country, does not give a **** about cancer in men. Every woman I know gets there check ups. It's amazing, they are SO tuned in to the risks of cancer it never fails to impress me. We have weeks for Breast Cancer awareness, mothers talk to daughters, daughters talk to mothes and girlfriends talk to each other.

Men on the other hand don't seem to talk about things at all, ever. It's like even ADMITTING that we could get sick and die at the age of 30 is admitting to weakness. There's no ad campaigns tell you to check the jewels and the prostate and get your bloods done. It's ****ing ridiculous.

Now then, am I saying that all woman in Ireland are on the lookout for deadly illness? Nope, of course not, but they are far more clued in than men are. I get my full bloods and medical done every 6 months. Part of the blood tests they run include various markers for cancers. Why do I do this? Because at one point in my life I got to sit there and wait for those tests to come back after finding a lump on my nut ( the left one, since I know your all wondering ) and that was not a pleasant time.

I did an experiment in work earlier today and spoke to 5 girls and 5 guys about health check ups. 4 of the 5 girls said they get "everything checked regularly". One of the guys said the same. Now then, I work with statistics for a living, so believe me when I understand it's a small sample from a small pool or a very specific demographic but still.

Get……your…..check……ups.

It's not a difficult message but it's one that most people will ignore, often until it's too late. The majority of serious illness come in stages, or classes. Your chance of beating said illness will increase with early detection. Dramatically.

I know what your thinking. Your thinking who the hell is this guy to preach? Well I'm just a guy who had a scare and who tends to care about things. On Friday I was caring about my family, on Saturday I was caring about my future and today, for some random reason, I am caring about your health.

So maybe you should too.

Chunkylover

out of a group of my friends, 3 of us have had to go and get them checked, mine was only trapped fluid (the left 1 swelled up to the size of a tennis ball, it was a great opener with the nurses, but thats another story), anyway the only reason I checked (and this was before it was that size) was cause of what my friends had gone thru, there is alot more awareness of this in the UK and is almost shunned overhere
So as was said go and get yourselves checked, a testicle the size of a tennis ball isnt that comfortable but it could have been worse

jester77

Must admit I haven't been to a doctor in 15 or 16 years and that was just a threatened appendix
Guess I really should go for a check up. Never been sick or had a reason to go... poor excuse really!!

Although I do check out my jewels every so often, it's something I concious of!

dannyd20

I discovered a lump (on the left one as well Dragan!) and went to my doc on a tuesday, had a scan on wednesday, saw a consultant on thursday and had surgery the following monday. I had 3 cycles of chemotherapy after that (that knocked me back a bit!) but thankfully am fit and well again now.

That was 2 years ago, I was 24. I was lucky.

Men, and young men in particular, seem to think that they are bullet proof, invincible etc. Wake up, it isn't true. I know quite a few people like jester77, i.e. haven't been to a doctor in 15/16 years. That isn't something to be proud of! Get regular check-ups!

nesf

I'd add to that being aware of your family history. If it's heart disease is the killer you really should be getting cholesterol checked yearly since it mightn't have been just diet/lifestyle behind it.

The problem I've found is that people are hyper-aware of cancer due to its suddenness but fail to give other big killers the same kind of attention. People telling smokers to not smoke because of lung cancer when heart disease is just as, if not far more, likely to be the fatal outcome of being a heavy smoker.

Etc.

Frankiestylee

There is an ad about prostate cancer awareness doing the rounds, I think Charlie Bird does it. It's not very effective, but at least something is being done.

I've often felt there should be similar checks for men as there are for women, the nice free ones that are in your locality and you can easily make an appointment for etc etc. I dunno, in ye olde age of gender equality that we're in, I find it hard to believe people could fund a female cancer check and not do the same for the male equivalent. Ok, so people might argue that men would never take up the offer but until the service is there you're never gonna know. I for one would pop along just to be safe.

Victor

Dragan wrote:

There's no ad campaigns tell you to check the jewels and the prostate and get your bloods done.

http://www.google.ie/search?hl=en&q=Rachel+Stevens+testicular+cancer&meta=

ktor

hi guys, i echo the comments about checking your nuts. for the last couple of months i have had a large swelling on my left testi and finally the pain got to much and i ended up in a-e. in 24 hrs i got diagnosed with testicular cancer and am having an op to remove the testicle next week, but before than they want to do a check (ct scan) to see if its spread. if anyone is or has gone throu any of this i would like to hear how you got on.

flywheel

old thread... but here's a relevant link as it has been pulled up
http://www.cancer.ie/prostate/

Red Hand

Dragan wrote:

Men on the other hand don't seem to talk about things at all, ever. It's like even ADMITTING that we could get sick and die at the age of 30 is admitting to weakness. There's no ad campaigns tell you to check the jewels and the prostate and get your bloods done. It's ****ing ridiculous.

I would say that I would be aware of it through ad campaigns...but even still, I hardly ever go to the doctor. Only times I've gone were for medicals for jobs. And this is about as far as I would talk about such things.:)

Jimmy Bottlehead

Never seen this thread before, but 'tis a good one. Fair play for raising this issue Dragan.

smashey

ktor wrote: »

hi guys, i echo the comments about checking your nuts. for the last couple of months i have had a large swelling on my left testi and finally the pain got to much and i ended up in a-e. in 24 hrs i got diagnosed with testicular cancer and am having an op to remove the testicle next week, but before than they want to do a check (ct scan) to see if its spread. if anyone is or has gone throu any of this i would like to hear how you got on.

ktor, I hopw this goes well for you. Please keep us updated with your progress please and post here as well if possible.

BraziliaNZ

mine was dodgy a while back, turned out to be chlamydia, there you go!

Ag marbh

I had one removed

Transform

you see this is truly where a forum comes into its own.

A great message and thanks for sharing

celestial

Big up to Dragan for the excellent words.

This should be sticky-fied, especially given that I'd wager 80%+ of this forum's visitors are men.