As a men’s health activist and a testicular cancer survivor, I am very interested in reading research studies pertaining to these topics. Throughout the month of February, I’ve been sharing my insights and commentary on a November 2018 men’s health study from The Urology Foundation (TUF), a UK-based charity that “leads the fight against urology disease.”
In the first two editions, I examined what they found in regards to testicular cancer and prostate cancer, respectively. The third entry took a look at how urological diseases can affect the different sexes on a romantic and psychological level.
As we wrap up February, today’s post—the final chapter in this series—will investigate what TUF intends to do now that they’ve seen the state of men’s health.
What does The Urology Foundation plan to do to fix this?
Statistics are important, but more crucial are actionable steps. I asked TUF for its overall thoughts on this study:
“Unfortunately, getting men interested and engaged with their urological health has been an uphill battle for far too long. Urology disease for men often means problems with sexual function and once you start to get into that territory, a lot of men put off dealing with it, and it’s easy to understand why.”
“We need to work on educating men. The message is simple: the sooner you deal with a problem, the more chance you have of getting it fixed. If you notice something out of the ordinary for your body, whether it’s struggling to pee, peeing too often, a lump on your testes, or difficulty with erections, you need to see your doctor.”
It’s not just a fancy quote; they’re doing the hard work to raise awareness wherever and however they can.
They have Urology Health pages that provide information on a variety of diseases. Beyond their own site, they write articles that are aimed at getting men to take greater care of their health (including a post in the Huffington Post recently).
Just as Ken Lane created #Takea2nd4theBoys, TUF set up #TUFnutsTuesday which encourages men to check their testes on the first Tuesday of every month and use our social media channels to share urology health information. They’re also working to get leaflets and slideshows into GP (general practitioners) waiting rooms.
As I was emailing back and forth with TUF (and often getting confused why their emails would come at like 3 a.m., before realizing time differences between North America and Europe are a thing), I realized that perhaps I need to take my testicular cancer and men’s health awareness mission worldwide.
In looking at my audience analytics on my own website, United States visitors account for well over half of all viewers. I am based in America so this make sense, but men’s health is a worldwide issue. Furthermore, while I am focused mainly on testicular cancer, I need to make sure I’m also highlighting other men’s health conditions. We need to bring all nations of the world together to rally around this important message.
Only through collaborations between men’s health organizations and activists of both the Western and Eastern Hemispheres can we make sure men know how to take care of their own ‘hineys’ and spheres.
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Photo Credit: Min Hoang/Flickr