Men: Get in for an exam – no excuses

June is halfway over, so chances are you’ve already heard that it’s Men’s Health Month and perhaps have even read a news story or two reminding men, and the women who love them, to be sure every man 40 or older makes the time for a prostate exam.

Yeah, I know. The idea of visiting a proctologist must be nearly as exciting for men as it is for us women in the same age group who must show up religiously for annual pap tests and breast exams.

At least men get to skip being saddled up in stirrups or having body parts compressed beyond belief while a high-tech machine captures images of any possible trouble that might otherwise go undetected.

The National Cancer Institute, however, estimates that the United States will see 186,320 new cases of prostate cancer diagnosed this year. And before we ring in 2009, 28,660 American men with the disease will die.

I’m not going to lie. For those of you who find yourselves in the latter category, the process isn’t pretty. From numerous doses a day of a plethora of oral medications to regular doses of radiation or chemotherapy, the disease has a way of literally taking over one’s life while slowly taking it away.

The sad part is, in most cases, the suffering, the added medical expenses for one’s loved ones and the emotional drain on all could have been avoided – simply by having toughed out the humiliation of submitting to a prostate exam – before the arrival of symptoms.

Nowadays, being diagnosed isn’t necessarily a death sentence. If caught early, there are treatments which can save lives, not to mention all of the associated grief that would have gone along with the pain of passing up the chance to benefit from early detection.

Such was not the case in 1997 when as a reporter I tackled the daunting task of documenting the life, and eventual death, of a terminal prostate cancer patient named Walter.

In his case, which he bravely shared openly with an entire community, the disease had initally gone into remission before suddenly reappearing 14 years later following the trauma of a motorcycle accident. By the time his doctor noted his rising PSA levels, the disease had spread to the bone. Treatments slowed things down a bit, long enough for him and his wife, Lillian, to benefit from the relief one can only find through hospice care.

My kudos still go to Walter, who wrote a letter to the editor so many years ago asking the publication I then wrote for to alert his fellow readers to slow down long enough to get their annual prostate exam, and for those whose lives were already beyond preserving, that they seek solace by checking into a hospice.

So, for Walter, once again I’m taking this uncomfortable, but important, message to the public.

What you do with it now is up to you.

RuthAnn Hogue is the award-winning author of “Goodbye, Walter: The Inspiring Story of a Terminal Cancer Patient” (Mapletree, 2005).

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