With the arrival of November we have seen the streets fill up sideburns. But no, this is not a new trend. The mustache has been resurrected this month since 2003 since ‘Movement’, a movement that comes to raise awareness of issues related to Men’s health.
[Por qué debes dejarte bigote en Noviembre]
The ‘Movember’ started in Australia. A group of men drank a beer while talking about the chic of the mustache, how old-fashioned it was and what it needed to be vindicated.
They thought it would be a great promotional excuse for them to grow a mustache, without looking anachronistic, to claim the health of men and menin a context in which there were already movements for the prevention and awareness of breast cancer.
[“La mamografía que me salvó la vida”: estas tres mujeres superaron el cáncer de mama gracias a una imagen]
We talked about the ‘Movember‘with Dr. Javier Romero-Otero, whose clinical practice focuses on the diagnosis, treatment, research and teaching of urologyrelated to oncology, prostate, andrology and surgery of the male genital area.
The doctor works as director of the urology department of HM Hospitales in Madrid, personally developing the service headquarters of the HM Sanchinarro, HM Monteprincipe, HM Puerta del Sur and HM Nuevo Belén university hospitals and as medical director of the ROC Clinic Group. He is also the head of the Andrology and Functional Unit for men of the Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre.
“In the ‘Movember’ movement, what we are trying to say is this men suffer more diseases than women, who die sooner and we should try to take care of ourselves. There are some specific diseases in men that are easy to detect early and avoid the consequences it has, which is to do a urological consultation in a simple and clear way, “says the doctor.
And he continues: “The first and most important is the prostatic pathologyboth enlargement in terms of benign prostatic hyperplasia and cancer of the prostate gland “.
[Miguel Sánchez Encinas, el gurú de la urología: “Bajar el ritmo sexual se relaciona con la disfunción eréctil”]
For this reason, remember this from the age of 45 men should go to the urologist every year and have a “simple” query.
The doctor explains that he has a clinical interview and one is done physical exploration. In this second part, the “much feared digital rectal examination, which is not a big deal and provides a lot of information. Also, it must be done, it cannot be ignored. ”
This exploration offers such information that the 20% of cancers today they would run away if a physical examination of the prostate had not been done.
Subsequently, the to blood collection to see how your kidney function, testosterone and PSA levels are doing. Finally they do a ultrasound in the urinary system area to see the kidneys, bladder and prostate.
“With this simple revision we can do a early diagnosis of both cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia and begin to implement the appropriate measures so that the disease does not progress and that not only does not take away the quality of life, but does not take years away from the person’s life “, explains the urologist.
touching the testicles
On the other hand, asks Dr. Romero fight testicular cancer. This type of cancer is the most frequent that young men suffer from, so it has a very important impact, as it is developing.
“Usually it appears between 20 and 30 yearsso it is very important in life, in personality development, in professional development, in finding a partner … So it has a very strong impact, cancer always has it, but suffering from it at 20 is not the same as a 70 “, says the urologist.
Treatment of this cancer is often associated chemotherapies. These cause bodily effects such as baldness, loss of muscle mass, physical deterioration …
“It is convenient that we make an exploitation, a self-examination. Just like the woman with breasts, but in the testicles. Palpate them to see if you notice any hardening, swelling or irregularity and if it is detected, go to the urologist, “she explains.
And he continues: «With a simple one ultrasoundwhich can be done in five minutes, which is harmless, which is cheap, you can see if you have any problems and you can detect it early and that you don’t have to reach those stages where aggressive chemotherapy is needed because it is very metastatic and detected at a very advanced stage .
Dr. Romero encourages everyone to take care of the health of men “who come to the urologist so that we can take care of their health, that we take care of them, because in the end it is very easy, very simple, inexpensive and it will give us a great advantage “.
