why is it that people are more concerned about raising money and awareness about breast cancer in women, when prostate cancer kills just as much men as breast cancer?
Cancer - 5 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
I don't think that people are MORE concerned about breast cancer than prostate cancer, I feel that women tend to come together more than men which subsequently leads to more awareness and fund raising. This is not at all meant to sound sexist, it is just my opinion. Also, it could be that breasts are a more open subject. It's less awkward to talk about breasts than it is prostates, and they are more out in the open. You see them everyday. Not sure if that is true or not, but again, just an opinion.
2 :
The answer to your question is 'hard work'. Breast cancer awareness campaigns and BC Awareness Month started as a campaign by ordinary women, many of them with cancer, to raise awareness so that people knew the symptoms, examined themselves regularly, attended their routine mammograms etc. Enthusiastic participation and hard work by women made it grow into something nationally, then internationally, recognised (and then big business cashed in). Any group of people can start such an awareness campaign for any illness. There are other cancer awareness months, ribbons etc; but no cancer campaign has had the sheer hard work put into it that breast cancer awareness has. If prostate cancer is a cause close to your heart (and good for you if it is) you and a group of friends could certainly start a campaign along the lines of the breast cancer awareness campaign, and I wish you success - you are right, all types of cancer need more awareness. You'll have to be prepared to work as hard though.
3 :
Firstly, this shouldn't be a case of one form of cancer vs another. Yes, breast cnacer gets lots of publicity and fund raising. There are several reasons for this. Women aren't afraid to talk about health issues Women take pro-active action when it comes to their health Breasts, and how to check them, are more "acceptable" as conversation than prostate and the tests for this. Lots of women have worked damn hard to make this a well publicised issue. BTW, men can also get breast cancer, women cannot get prostate cancer. It would make more sense to compare with ovarian cancer.
4 :
Both lo_mcg and Tarkarri have excellent answers and I particularly like the part about breast cancer being more acceptable to talk about and men's reluctance to talk about health problems or undergo the prostate exams necessary for the diagnosis of prostate cancer. I know for a fact that the unwillingness part was true for me and I am grateful my doctor wouldn't take "no" for an answer. He estimated the cancer I had in the prostate could have been growing for as long as ten years and when he found it, it had apparently very recently moved outside the prostate into the surrounding soft tissue. It was on the move to eventually kill me. After several treatments, including radioactive seeds, external beam radiation and a lupon injection, I have been NED (no evidence of disease) since 2006. Thanks a lot for asking the question and thanks to the women for such insightful responses.
5 :
All the answers so far are fine. I've recently been treated, not long ago enough to know results yet. As much as we wish that the question were not a "vs." situation it indeed is part of the issue. The "vs" comes in the fight for attention from researchers, and funding from the funding agencies, and visibility in the healthcare systems and in the marketplace. My sense, like other responders, is that the inability of men to talk to other men about intimate subjects such as cancer and the symptoms that go with prostate cancer is the preeminent problem. But I believe that we are dealing with a legacy of thinking that is very damaging ... and it is thinking at the professional level. PCa has long been considered an "old man's disease", that was true and it could be dismissed because men died in their 60s and early 70s of other causes so PCa wasn't as much of a factor. Several of the doctors I saw still think that way. But we all are living longer. Men who died of something else before their PCa got them are now living long enough that undetected or untreated cancer to be a major concern. There's another consideration, "it's just plumbing" vs. "boobs" (sorry to be indelicate) but breasts are in our society an object of sexual beauty and desire. (An awful lot of merchandise is sold with pictures of women from the waist up, eh?) A parallel thinking is that sexual activity pretty much is over by the time you get PCa. Well the studies don't quite support that either, folks aren't quite so willing to give up on sex just because their supposed to when they get older. What's that got to do with it? Just that most of the treatments for PCa severely diminish or eradicate the ability to have erections which are fairly essential to most people's sexual enjoyment. The breast cancer folks have done a fine job, the real question is how to get men talking, how to get them to speak frankly to their doctors and demand compassion and the latest treatments and more research. It's time for some major corporate executive to step forward and put blue ribbons on the boxes of cereal that his firm makes, so that the world will start noticing.
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