It's sad that people are ashamed to admit they've been to see the proctologist. I certainly am not afraid to admit to it in this blog post, mainly because the embarrassment surrounding the visit to the specialist who looks after your plumbing is sometimes out of proportion to the maintenance of urogenital health today.
In 1991 I went to the urogenital specialist (proctologist) for a quick examination before surgery and thought it felt good. Though he was like, "this is an examination." The surgery was done to close one hole in the urethra, but it left a scar. This was a followup to surgery done at age five to correct hypospadia.
I remember the time when I was in the hospital in the urogenital ward for the initial operation in 1964. We kids bonded and told ourselves the lies that reduce that scary feeling of anxiety when telling the truth.
There is also a vague memory of the pre-operative procedure in which a part of the flesh around the open was burned off with silver nitrate. Before that I remember trying to imitate my father by urinating while standing up. "Mom, I'm peeing standing up!", I yelled. However, the elation from that moment was quickly dashed when my mother scolded me for dripping all over the floor.
On Canada, there is NO psychotherapy before the operation and in post op. Instead, we learned to bury our memories of the experience over time on our way to adulthood. No wonder! Society deems it inappropriate to even admit children who are deeply afraid of being different from other children. As young children, we would never admit publicly to being different down there out of fear that we'd be bullied for being the third sex.
Today, as an adult, I considered it to be no big deal to mention this incident in my early childhood because the five decades insulate me from the pain.
When I reflect on incidents between 1964 and 1991 during my childhood and early adulthood, it is of a boy who was painfully confused about his gender who grew up into a man who behaved immaturely and sometimes impulsively due to that confusion.
After the recent surgery, my confidence slowly returned since I identified as male after 1991. However, it took twenty years to tell my story. Today I appreciate my father for his work at the sawmill because his employment plan paid for the my first surgery. As well, my respect for my mother is being renewed because of her support for me.
Even so, the risk of prostate cancer is great after the age of 50 for males. In fact, prostate cancer is the second-leading causes of death for men, because of the embarrassment of the care for our plumbing.
According to the Official Foundation of the American Urological Society, I have learned that:
An analysis of autopsy studies has shown that approximately one in three men over the age of 50 years had histologic evidence of prostate cancer, with up to 80% of these tumors being limited in size and grade and, therefore, clinically insignificant. However, a recent study of incidental prostate cancer diagnosed in organ donors found prostate cancer in 1 in 3 men age 60-69, and this increased to 46% in men over age 70.
What this means is that one-third of men, aged 50 year or over, have signs of prostate cancer with 20% or less of the cases being clinically significant. While incidental prostate cancer still occurs in one in three men in their sixties, by the time they are in their seventies, that incidence has increased to 46%.
For Canada this means approximately 1.2 million men in their 50s have evidence of possible prostate cancer. Less than 240 thousand of these men will test positive for cancer. Of men in their 60s, 600 thousand of them will test positive for cancer. For the men in their 70s, almost a half million will have cancer, which is attributable to the number one killer of men, heart disease.
Up to two million Canadian men aged 50 and over may test positive for prostate cancer this year. That's a statistical fact.
So it's important for men 50 years or over to get their prostate checked and to reduce that belly fat to prevent heart disease.
Looks like I'll be booking an appointment with a urologist through my doctor to get my prostate checked this year.
Reference:
Third sex: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_gender
Hypospadia: http://www.urologyhealth.org/urology/index.cfm?article=130
Prostate cancer: http://www.urologyhealth.org/urology/index.cfm?article=146&display=1
Age (131) and Sex (3) for the Population of Canada, Provinces, Territories, Census Metropolitan Areas and Census Agglomerations, 2006 and 2011 Censuses, 2011 Census of Canada: http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2011/dp-pd/tbt-tt/Rp-eng.cfm?LANG=E&APATH=3&DETAIL=0&DIM=0&FL=A&FREE=0&GC=0&GID=0&GK=0&GRP=1&PID=102008&PRID=0&PTYPE=101955&S=0&SHOWALL=0&SUB=0&Temporal=2011&THEME=88&VID=0&VNAMEE=&VNAMEF=
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