About a year and a half ago someone I love very much got kicked in the balls by his girlfriend. It was totally an accident but it was kind a miraculous one. When she kicked him he recognized that it hurt more than it should. He went to a doctor a few days later and it all happened very quickly from there. He was diagnosed with a malignant tumor, his testicle was removed and because they had caught it so early there was no cancer anywhere else. I don’t remember the timeline but it was definitely less than a month for all of this. He jokes that he had cancer for less time than folks have the flu.* He was spared chemotherapy and radiation. He goes back often but the pathology has stayed clean. My friend and all of us who love him were extremely lucky and I’m so thankful that his girlfriend (now wife) kicked him in the nuts.**
Because not everyone is lucky enough to accidentally get kicked in the balls at exactly the right moment, earlier this year called Blue September, a fundraising and awareness group devoted to men’s cancers, ran this poster in, among other places, women’s restrooms. Because of my friend’s story I found it funny and while I don’t love the presentation of this poster (the sexualization, the heteronormativity) I do love its function- get people thinking, talking, checking.I first saw it in Guys: Check Your Balls by Earl Hipp from his blog Man Making. Check out Mr. Hipp’s piece so we can discuss some of the stats, go ahead, I’ll wait….
Okay, so 1 in 268 men*** will be diagnosed with testicular cancer. To get some perspective I looked up the capacity of Fenway Park (I live in Boston) Fenway holds 37,400 people. If we assume half of the crowd to be male that means that at any given game 69 men present (not including staff and players) will be diagnosed with testicular cancer at some point. Play ball, indeed.
Also, men are 30% more likely to be diagnosed with cancer than women and 33% more likely to die of it!? What the hell? The story I told above along with Lance Armstrong and Sex in the City definitely left me with the wrong impression when it comes to testicular cancer. I had simplified it to “cancer is in the ball, go get the ball, cancer is gone” I was very, very wrong. Earlier this week I read a piece called “What’s it Like to Lose a Testicle?” profiling a couple of men’s journeys through testicular cancer and was stunned when I read this: “Testicular cancer has a fairly predictable path of travel when it metastasizes: lymph nodes, then the pelvis, then the abdomen, next behind the kidneys, then the lungs, and finally the brain.” Don’t mess around folks. Let’s take care of ourselves and each other.
So, what to do?
Take Care of Yourself
Folks, despite what they told you in grade school, manhandle your balls. For serious. Being aware of what’s normal is the best way to know when something isn’t. Here are some instructions on doing a self-check from one of my favorite resources that I came across putting this piece together, a site called Checkemlads (thank you again, Earl Hipp!) The site is devoted exclusively to testicular cancer awareness and support, it’s fairly awesome.
Support Others
You know how it seems the entire world turns pink every October in the name of breast cancer awareness? Let’s get balls some of that support. We’re mid-way through November which means Movember is in full swing, go support one of your hairier than usual friends. If you don’t have any of those, you can support mine, I was surprised to find only one of my facebook friends participating this year as folks seem super-hairy, I guess everyone else is just hipster-y. Anyway, go check it out.
Also, as I mentioned earlier, Blue Septemeber is a global awareness and fundraising initiative go check them out.
So, that’s is folks. Take care of yourselves, take care of each other. Do it! Otherwise I’ll send my friend’s wife over to administer her patented cancer screening.
*By the way, this all happened in Massachusetts where we already have a healthcare system pretty similar to what folks are freaking out about the rest of the country getting. If you hear folks talk about long lines, delayed services and all that awfulness, tell them this story. Also, our system was put into place by our former governor, a dude named Romney, not sure what he’s up to these days.
**On a funny note, ‘cancer screening’ has become code for ‘kick in the nuts’ among us. So, when my friend is being annoying his wife will say “don’t make me give you my special ‘cancer screening'”
***Remember, not everyone with testicles is a man and not every man has testicles. I’m quoting these stats as I found them but they apply to all people with testicles.
