‘It is extremely treatable’: April kicks off testicular cancer awareness month

With April being Testicular Cancer Awareness Month, the leading charity dedicated to changing the face of men’s health — Movember —  is encouraging men across the country to check for signs or inconsistencies through “Know Thy Nuts” — a program dedicated to educating men on early signs of the disease.

Testicular cancer remains the number one cancer among young men as only 22 per cent of Canadian men feel confident they’d be able to check their testicles for irregularities. One-in-four men say they’ve never checked their pair.

Cancer survivor Charlie Arden-Brown says even he was unaware of this statistic.

“I think it’s something that’s really overlooked within young men, especially healthy young men,” said Arden-Brown.

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According to the Movember campaign, 70 per cent of Canadian young men say they would make a doctor’s appointment if they noticed something abnormal with their testicles, though only 24 per cent say they would share it with their partner and only 18 per cent would share it with a family member they trust.

“The harder thing was kind of telling people,” Arden-Brown said. “That seemed to be the weird one because you don’t know how to like drop that into conversation.”

Arden-Brown – originally from London, England, and now residing in Vancouver – says he was diagnosed last December after going for a run and noticing an inconstant feeling. He then debated on going to the hospital for a checkup. Thankfully, he says, his intuition guided him to the doctor’s office.

It was then he was told he had a tumor in his left testicle.

“I broke my arm when I was younger and I had a longer time out when I broke my wrist than I did from this surgery. Honestly, it was probably a week-and-a-half of lying in bed and that was it,” he said.

“With this form of cancer, it metastasizes quite quickly, it does get bigger. By the time I was having surgery, it was almost impossible to ignore that there was quite a large tumor in my testicles. I think it would have got to a point where I couldn’t ignore it.”

Brown’s family resides in England, noting many difficulties in communication considering the distance between them. He says hiding a diagnosis or delaying a doctors visit is a common trope for men struggling with the disease.

“That’s a behavior we want to change,” says Movember Canada cancer programs implementation director Dr. Mike Fraser. “Testicular cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer amongst males aged 15 to 40.”

He says there are about 1,300 cases a year in Canada, and though it’s not a huge figure, it’s important to have those conversations with younger individuals who aren’t necessarily in tune to their health or about cancer.

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How to Regularly Check Your Pair

The Movember campaign has provided three easy steps on how men can check on their pair. Steam. Roll. Repeat. And if something doesn’t feel right, book an appointment with a doctor.

1. STEAM – Warm up in a steamy shower. This relaxes and loosens the nuts, getting them ready to be checked.
2. ROLL – With your thumb and finger, roll one testicle to get to know what’s normal for you. Check for any changes or anything painful.
3. REPEAT – Now repeat with the other nut.

Early signs can be a lump, swelling or pain, an increase in size, or change in feel — though symptoms may not be the same for everyone.

‘I was one of those statistics’

“Even when I first went to the doctors, I didn’t want my girlfriend to know initially. Which is again a crazy thing to think,” Arden-Brown explained. “It’s bizarre that was my initial thought.”

Dr. Fraser says this, along with other stigmas, currently surround the disease, prompting men across Canada to neglect the conversation on what he describes as a very curable disease.

“It is extremely treatable. So if it’s discovered early, cure rates are well north of 95 per cent. So it’s very, very treatable,” He explained. “That’s really the crux of what we want to talk about at Movember in terms of our Know Thy Nuts campaign.”

Three months post surgery, Arden-Brown continues to excel and continue his hobby of running, which he says is an outlet for stress and an opportunity to show that there is life after cancer.

For the month of April, he plans to run 10 kilometres a day to raise awareness of the disease and document it on his social media page, and to share facts and myth busters surrounding the topic.

“What’s the worst that could happen by checking your nuts?” he asked. “You feel your nuts, you’re fine you know. The worst that can happen is you detect something like me and you’re then in the motions, in the process of getting it sorted out.”

More information on the campaign is available online and additional information for men going through a testicular cancer diagnosis can be found here.

“We just want to de-stigmify that idea of there’s something abnormal,” Dr. Fraser said. “Knowing is so much better than not knowing and leaving and hoping it’ll just go away.”