We are now around half way through the month of October, I am sorry breast cancer awareness month, I keep forgetting!  How can I forget with that pink ribbon on everything I buy at the supermarket and after watching the manliest of men, football players, dancing around with pink sneakers.

So, why is breast cancer awareness and the public’s concern for breast cancer survivors so high while  prostate cancer awareness and our concern for men with prostate cancer seemingly so unimportant?  Is it because the surgeons have made us into gelding with smaller penises?  That is the only conclusion I can draw.

Prostate cancer is less lethal.  Deaths projected in 2013 for breast cancer are 39,620 which is a ratio of 17% against newly diagnosed. For prostate cancer the projected death rate is a mere 29,720, a ratio of 12.5% against newly diagnosed.  But come on guys, we go off the deep end by ignoring the number of annual deaths we do have from prostate cancer, how can you say that  29,720 deaths does not qualify as a public health emergency.

I know why 29,729 annual deaths are so unimportant.  I hear the constant comment; prostate cancer is a disease of older men (Are older men designed for us to throw them away?) so it isn’t a public emergency.

Give me a break.  No, better yet get your ducks in a row and straighten out your statistics.  That irritating lie about prostate cancer being a disease of old age isn’t true, that unless you also believe that breast cancer is a disease of older people.  As of January 1, 2012 the median age for breast cancer diagnosis was 61 years old and for prostate cancer it is was 67 years.  I understand, it really depends on when you become old, is there a difference between 61 and 67 years?

What a surprise for me, I guess there is!

Joel T Nowak M.A., M.S.W.