Testicular Cancer Awareness Month:
A disease of youth and careless health
April is Testicular Cancer Awareness Month.
This month, along with other awareness periods that particularly emphasize the necessity of men’s well-being, is often overlooked by those in the health advocacy field. And if not completely ignored, the discussion around testicular cancer is often relegated to a lower priority, sidelined, or even treated as a casual opportunity.
But testicular cancer rates are rising. in fact, it has been for quite some time:
According to the American Cancer Society, “The incidence rate of testicular cancer has been increasing in the US and many other countries for several decades… Experts have been unable to find a reason for this.”
And although the rate of increase appears to be moderating slightly, testicular cancer is still the most common cancer among men ages 15 to 44, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The fact is, as with many cancers, testicular cancer is much more treatable if caught early. In addition, early-stage testicular cancer can be detected through both self-examination and regular visits to a health care provider.
In fact, testicular cancer is uniquely easy to detect early. In other words: prevention, as always, is a fundamental key to improving health outcomes. So what is the justification for its proliferation in recent decades?
This question has a constellation of answers:
First, many of the risk factors associated with testicular cancer are immutable in nature, such as European heritage, undescended testes, family history or genetic predisposition, and other associated testicular abnormalities (such as cryptorchidism), according to with the American Cancer Society.
In addition, many cancers are linked to lack of physical activity, alcohol and tobacco consumption, and conditions such as obesity or being overweight.
This is not necessarily the case with testicular cancer, or at least there is not statistically sufficient evidence to support this claim. So, taking all this into account, testicular cancer is something of an anomaly.
Now, factor in the peculiarity of its age distribution, and testicular cancer is an absolute idiosyncrasy in the health world…
Some studies have linked testicular cancer to the presence of HIV/AIDS, stating that “increased risk for germ cell tumors (GCT), particularly testicular seminoma” is a symptom of immunodeficiency (NIH). More research needs to be done, however, to verify any possible associations with testicular cancer and other, relatively less serious STDs, such as chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, and even HPV (human papillomavirus). While many strides have been made and are being made in the medical fields to further understand the intricacies and complexities of testicular cancer, public awareness and knowledge of the disease still lags behind breast cancer, for example.
Even prostate cancer has made significant progress both scientifically and in advocacy.
Testicular cancer remains mostly untouched.
Testicular cancer studies and research are often overshadowed in terms of resources and funding by cancers that are considered more serious, less trivial. There is a common sense that we already basically have the answers and there is not much we can do. The risk factors are mostly immutable characteristics, the disease is mostly treatable, all the instructions and procedures are already prescribed. Check and check early.
This is “All that can be done” obviously.
There is a tendency in the public consciousness, as well as in academia, to primarily focus on and prioritize health issues that disproportionately affect women. This trend is more than understandable, as women have been systematically ignored in the field of medicine practically since its inception.
For example, “In 1977, the FDA issued a directive that prohibited most women of ‘reproductive capacity’ from participating in clinical research studies,” according to the Office on Women’s Health.
Obviously this has not technically been policy for decades, but the remainder of these disparities have persisted for some time, leading to a de facto misunderstanding and discrimination against women in the medical and health-oriented fields more broadly.
Many men, however, and especially young men, ignore this important historical context:
Young men simply experience a lack of outreach from both health professionals and public health advocates.
Young men experience social isolation and alienation as a result of norms surrounding masculinity. These feelings and conditions are exacerbated and exacerbated by a wide range of socioeconomic factors. Young men spend much of their time alone and online, exploring and being exposed to a whole world of health and wellness-related content, extremely little of which makes any deliberate effort to engage or appeal to them. They experience this lack of approach as excluded or left out of the conversation.
These young men feel as if they exist in a world that is at best indifferent to them and at worst hostile to them, and public health advocates aren’t doing much to dispel that notion.
In the title of this article, I use the phrase “Neglect of Health” to describe a phenomenon:
Young men are missing out on critical information about testicular cancer.
According to the study, testicular cancer knowledge and attitudes of American men,
A total of 250 men rated themselves as “somewhat unknown” about TC, with no respondent considering themselves “very knowledgeable”. Only 26.4% of men knew that TC was curable most of the time. Despite 90.8% of men who felt their doctor had a role in the TC/TSE discussion, only 17.2% had discussed these issues with their doctor. Even after being briefed on the rationale behind the USPSTF recommendations, only 8% of men felt that the potential false positives of TSE would be more important than the rare chance of finding early TC.
Furthermore, according to the results of the same study, “American men do not feel knowledgeable about TC, have favorable attitudes toward STD, and want their doctor to discuss these issues.”
So not only is there a gap in knowledge and awareness about testicular cancer, but there is a prevalent, widespread desire among men to address this issue. There is plenty of audience for these conversations, but very few people actively start them.
But whose job is it to initiate such discussions?
When I use the phrase “Neglect of Health” I do not do so to blame or blame these young men.
After all, how can they be expected to follow self-care guidelines when they have no concept of preventive health?
And how can they be expected to be health conscious when they are not targeted for outreach, education and participation?
Men are not biologically inclined to skip doctor visits. They are not genetically predisposed to ignore their own well-being.
They’re just not being spoken to in their language, in their spaces, on their terms—that is, if they’re being spoken to at all.
Ultimately, testicular cancer is a microcosm of the state of men’s health more broadly.
The men neither speak to each other nor speak to them.
