November is back, and as a habit it’s time again for Movember, the international awareness campaign on men’s health. And never like this year there seems to be a real need: as the experts of the Italian Society of Urology (SIU) recall, the pandemic has considerably slowed down screening and early diagnosis for prostate cancer, the most common and preventable neoplasm for men . It is therefore time to go back to normal and grow a mustache, as Movember invites to do in the month dedicated to male prevention, it is a good way to remember: periodic screenings and a healthy lifestyle, in this case, really make a difference.
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Also this year, Siu, the historic partner of the initiative, has planned a series of initiatives for citizens: an information campaign in the barbershop, which involves three important national chains, and meetings with experts during the “Caffè con l ‘urologist “, planned in Rome, Milan and Florence to clarify how specialist examinations and visas work for the prevention of male health.
Prevention
“Male prevention starts first of all from the urological check-up – he remembers by the way Giuseppe Carrieri, SIU president and full professor of urology and director of the urology department at the University of Foggia – The urological examination represents the first fundamental step to be able to identify early the most frequent pathologies of the male sex including prostate cancer (the most common in men, it affects about 600,000 men a year in Europe, 36,000 in Italy) and benign prostatic hypertrophy (which affects up to one in two men), but also rarer diseases such as testicular cancer. A more complete uro-andrological evaluation also allows to identify other frequent pathologies such as varicocele, which can be associated with male infertility, and erectile dysfunction which can be a first alarm bell for cardio-vascular problems “.
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Pathologies
The two most common urological diseases in adults, namely prostate cancer and benign prostatic hypertrophy, rarely show signs of themselves in the early stages. For this reason urological screening is important: it guarantees the best chance for an early diagnosis, thus avoiding the risk of discovering the disease when it is now difficult to treat.
The urological examination
The advice of the specialists is to undergo a first urological examination from the age of 40, so as to define an adequate prevention path for prostatic problems. Another key moment is adolescence, when an uro-andrological evaluation is recommended in order to be able to adequately recognize and treat pathologies such as varicocele or prostatitis, which, if neglected, can have serious repercussions over time. In this case, the visit also offers the perfect opportunity to sensitize the youngest to the issue of preventing diseases such as testicular cancer, the most common neoplasm between 15 and 40 years.
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Il check-up
What, then, does the urological check-up consist of? “The first urological evaluation is based on an accurate analysis of the possible risk factors associated with the main diseases that can affect the adult male and on the careful clinical examination of the external genitalia and prostate – concludes Andrea Salonia, professor of Urology at the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan and head of the Training Office of the SIU. “This visit is also often associated with a blood analysis for the PSA dosage, which is an index of prostatic health and a marker of prostate cancer. In specific cases, the visit may be completed by any ultrasound scans of the urinary tract or testicles”.