SEX AND PUBERTY: MEN’S CANCER
An unfortunate byproduct of the guilt created about masturbation is that the whole genital area can become off-limits. The ‘hands off’ policy flies in the face of good preventive health measures.
I was talking to a colleague recently who is a plastic surgeon specializing in reconstruction of sexual parts. One of his jobs is to reconstruct penises after they have been amputated for treatment of cancer of the glans (knob). He told me how concerned he was that men as a group were so pitifully ignorant of their own sexual parts. ‘Women have gotten used to the idea of going along for a Pap smear. They know to check their breasts regularly, and if they have a problem with their periods they let someone know about it. Nobody tells boys to check themselves out,’ he said. ‘If only they would learn the simple routine of pulling back the foreskin every day, washing away the secretions and checking for any sores, I wouldn’t see nearly as many penises amputated for cancer. A significant number of our young men are dying from testicular cancer when they could be enjoying the prime of their lives. Did you know that this is the most common cause of cancer death in men from fifteen to thirty-five years? If they could just be encouraged to get to know how their ,scrotum feels … check their testicles regularly in the shower … and if they notice one getting bigger than the other, for goodness sake tell their doctor, so that if it does mean testicular cancer, it can be sorted out while it’s still at a curable stage.’
It’s common for people to be strapped into the straitjacket of ‘shoulds’ and ‘oughts’. That’s not to say we don’t need guidelines or rules for living, but so much distress is caused when your ‘shoulds’ say one thing and your better judgment tells you another.
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