Gay men and prostate cancer: A good reason to bend over.

According to the National Cancer Institute, one out of every six men will develop prostate cancer. And while for gay men, AIDS is the health scourge that must be addressed, prostate cancer affects many of us and should not be ignored. In fact in the last year, two friends of mine were diagnosed — one of them  has been HIV+ for more than 20 years and when he got a diagnosis of prostate cancer it was a real crisis. Not merely because of the risks he faced being positive, but because the treatment of prostate cancer can radically change a man's sex life. The prospects are physically, emotionally and psychologically daunting to say the least. So what do you need to know, and what are the resources available to you?

First thing to know: if you're over 50, your doctor should be giving you a PSA test every year, not to mention a digital rectal exam. Many straight men are squeamish about this. Even some doctors are squeamish about it. Too bad. It's necessary if you want to save your life.

Next thing to know: if you're diagnosed with prostate cancer you probably don't have to act right away. It is often a rather slow growing cancer, and you should wait at least six weeks before making a decision about what to do, since you have many options depending on your particular diagnosis. You need to learn all about your options and get the facts. If you are in NYC, you are very lucky because there is a Gay Men's Prostate Cancer Support Group that meets at St. Vincent's once a month. You can learn a lot from these men, and get the emotional support you need. For more information, you can also email [email protected]   

There are two important books to read:

• Dr. Patrick Walsh's Guide To Surviving Prostate Cancer
• A Gay Man's Guide to Prostate Cancer, by Gerald Perlman, PhD and Jack Drescher, MD

There are things gay men will want to know or think about that aren't part of the experience or thought process of a straight man or doctor. So the queer resources mentioned above can be very useful.

I bring all this up because even though September is about to end, this is prostate cancer awareness month. And as it turns out, there's a new novel about a gay man dealing with the effects of prostate cancer on his life. I haven't read it yet, but I wanted to share the information with you..

Benediction is a new novel by Jim Arnold, the author/director of feature film screenplays and teleplays

including the documentary short "Our Brothers, Our Sons," about generational differences around HIV/AIDS in gay men.

For general information, the sites at Johns Hopkins, Memorial Sloan Kettering and the Cleveland Clinic are full of good information.

Christopher Isherwood died of prostate cancer at a time when it couldn't bet detected until it was too late to do anything. No gay man need face that fate today. Get the facts, get tested. And pay attention to your diet — there are very specific things you can do to reduce your risk by eating right. The sites mentioned above have information about this as well.

To paraphrase the song: take good care of yourself, we belong to each other.

Comments

[Lee Evans]

hi - just went to this support group last night. i thought it was an amazing source, wish i'd known about it earlier, and will continue to go. perhaps you were there? oddly, i am also interested in buddhism, but am a poor practitioner!
do you attend a sangha? thanks for putting this out there.