Prostate cancer myths: "She'll be right, mate"

Transcript

Read the conversation at your own pace. The words below come from the original recording. Editorial notes sit outside the dialogue so you can tell the difference.

Steve (veterinary surgeon): Well, g'day, Dick. Good to see you again, mate. Morning, Steve. How are you, mate? Yeah, good, mate. Yeah, listen, I thought today it'd be good to chat about a few of the myths that are wrapped around prostate disease in men. And I'm aware of a lot of medications, shall we say, that claim to help prostate disease in men. So I wanted to pick your brains on what is in the pharmaceutical world that could possibly help men and talk about some of these things that I get spammed all the time. So, for instance, I did a search. I'm going to grab my phone to show you. I did a search on all the spam mail I get and I just typed in "prostate" and I've got dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens of emails talking about my prostate. And there's medications, there's one called Gorilla Flow. They claim that gorillas don't get prostate disease. Now, I don't know who's worked that out and I'm a vet, so I don't know who's going to stuck their finger up a gorilla's date to figure that one out. Oh, okay.

Dick: I'm interested in the fellow who actually found out about the gorilla. I wonder how he spent his last day on Earth. I'm perplexed. That requires further research, to be honest.

Steve (veterinary surgeon): Well, funnily enough, that website's now disappeared. So I don't know if Gorilla Flow...

Dick: As has the fellow doing the exam.

Steve (veterinary surgeon): There's another thing here called Brazilian Jelly. There's another one called Panama Jelly. There's all these exercises that can have you peeing like a champion and email after email after email, you know, telling men how they can fix something, you know, that they should be going to see their doctor about.

Dick: The myths that are out there absolutely have to be debunked. Because this is a bit like people giving many varied solutions for a broken arm. There's only one. You put it in a cast and you wait until it fixes itself, then you get on with it. And with the prostate, we are talking about a serious problem that because it involves a man's sexuality, which is so important to most men, to all men really, at different times, and unless you can really come to terms with the fact that that may change as in life and you can adjust to change, you're going to be in trouble. The worst possible thing is then to have cough mixture salesmen coming in and offering other cures, which just are completely unrealistic.

Steve (veterinary surgeon): Yeah, yeah. Some of these emails do talk about exercises and previously we've chatted about the physiotherapy. You did.

Dick: That's different. Yeah. Pre-surgery. Yeah. And made a big difference and strong proponent for any form of regimented, but professionally designed exercise that strengthens the perineum area. Absolutely. And made a huge difference for me personally. So there you go. It works.

Steve (veterinary surgeon): But it strikes me, Dick, that the fact that there's so much of this email traffic out there, obviously targeting men of my age and others, do you think that this is just because men are so anxious about seeking proper help? So they might know consciously that they've got a problem with their prostate. Yeah. And then they're going to try and potentially look for a quick fix or a solution.

Dick: It's a really good point when people are anxious, they do have a tendency to respond to things differently. And if someone was to put their head over the fence and tell you you'd never have another erection and you saw something while you're walking back on the telly that said, "I can help you," then you're probably going to listen to that as much as you listen to the fellow who's taking it over the fence. Yeah. So you really got to cut all the rubbish out and just stick with the facts. And that's where the doctor's so important. If you have a flight path and you can actually follow what needs to be done by the right people, you're going to be safe. Anything else that comes across your spam or your email or whatever, or is told to you by somebody working in pharmacy is probably not qualified. You really have to discount it.

Steve (veterinary surgeon): Well, let's debunk a few myths in this chat. So what are the myths are there around prostate disease and prostate cancer in particular that you've come across in your many years and particularly as a survivor of prostate cancer yourself?

Dick: Well, I think there's no doubt the myth about the fellow testing the gorilla is a myth. Sure.

Steve (veterinary surgeon): "Gorillas in the myth"!

Dick: The myths are that the biggest misunderstanding, for want of a better word, is the belief that it's going to go away. And you know, I'm Irish Catholic, so obviously we don't talk. People, men don't talk generally about their stuff. Nowadays, we're all talking. We're doing it now because it's so important. But the myths are there for those that want to listen. And I think, first of all, you've got to get men to talk and then you've got to make sure that what they're talking about is actual make sense and facts because otherwise people get into trouble and then they develop their own conspiracies and they're all sitting in the pub and they're saying, you know, I've heard this and I say, oh, when's your hand? And everybody believes it's almost like they want to stick with the facts, stick with your doctor, have a flight path and ignore the myths.

Steve (veterinary surgeon): So just then you've touched on religious beliefs and cultural beliefs. Are you aware of cultures where something like prostate disease just isn't talked about?

Dick: Well, it's interesting you raise that. And I know we've discussed it throughout this podcast and there are certain cultures and it's not positioning anyone in particular that regard that anything to do with your penis or your struggles with your penis is going to show you as a weak man. And it's unfortunate. And they're things that are almost impossible to deprogram, almost impossible. I'd be stunned if anyone with a religious belief thought it was okay to not see a doctor. I'd be stunned. So the cultural belief is a little bit different because it's how they're perceived within their communities. A man, he's the leader of the pack and therefore makes all of the hard decisions and suddenly looks like this ability to multiply and provide for his family and the kids that he has is gone or potentially gone. That's a hard one. And we've just got to suddenly, we've got to aim probably at the next generation coming through and get them to talk to their parents and say, hang on for a minute, we've got to get a doctor involved here. This is not a cultural problem. We still have our culture. We want you to be around to be a part of it. The only slight chance we have of getting through to someone who's completely aligned with the fact that that's a sign of weakness, if I discuss it, is by injecting some humour into the equation. And there was a fellow, apparently, he went into a pharmacy at one stage and he stood there and waited patiently while the woman was serving a customer. When that person left, he was the only one in the pharmacy. And she said, can I help you? And he opened his jacket and he had an erection. And he said,

Dick: can you give me something for this? And so she said, one minute, she ran out the back. And about ten minutes later, she came back and she said, I've had a chat to my sister and we'll give you 10 grand in cash and half the business.

Dick: So that's the humorous side of it. That's the humorous side of, and we've got to keep it in that sort of perspective. If we start taking the myths and the ridiculous stuff seriously, we're going to all finish up in trouble. And it's important to have the humour, the grandfather who moved in with his daughter and her husband as he was getting older couldn't probably care for himself as much as he should on his own. And they realized that they'd given him three times his dose of Viagra that he normally would need to take. And anyway, they decided to continue doing so because it stopped him from falling out of bed in the middle of the night.

Steve (veterinary surgeon): So Dick, one of the things we haven't talked about is the embarrassment factor. We've talked about fear, but there must be an embarrassment amongst men about getting a digital examination particularly.

Dick: I think some men definitely are a little bit anti or a bit agin, getting someone to examine them. Yeah, absolutely. It's a new experience. It's a different experience. And I'll be honest with you, it comes as a bit of a surprise. I think the most important thing out of all we've talked about is the fear factor, because it's so important not to be afraid because if you are afraid and you don't think about it, you could die. So take away the fear. Look at it from a positive point of view. This is something to help you hopefully remain on the earth a little bit longer. And if you can do anything, if you do have cancer to prevent a fatal result, then it's certainly worth exploring. And it doesn't last for long. And the doctor does everything he can to help. He puts a glove on, he lubricates the glove. And so it's not an issue, and it's just part of the process. And so you get used to it. I can see you're smiling.

Dick: It's interesting because men think that something that's a little bit different, it's almost like we go back to the schoolyard humour and we make jokes about it amongst ourselves. Sure. And unfortunately, the same mentality is that men get together, and not only they make jokes about it, they sort of talk about why they shouldn't have to do anything else about it. And I'll just park that over there. And then unfortunately, out of the sixth, one might die in two years' time.

Steve (veterinary surgeon): But that's also a very Australian kind of attitude, isn't it? It is.

Dick: She'll be right, mate.

Steve (veterinary surgeon): If something's challenging, turn it into a joke and then park it.

Dick: She'll be right, mate. It works and it's great. But sometimes when it comes to your own health, the she'll be right, mate, isn't that applicable. It's more a matter of, hang on, let's talk to the people who know. And then, well, if they say it's okay, then she'll be right. But let's not form that opinion ourselves until we get further advice.

Steve (veterinary surgeon): So I guess the take home message is don't believe all the rubbish that you get emailed and spam and the water cooler talk, I guess. Seek proper advice, seek medical advice,

Dick: and talk openly about it. Throughout this podcast, we've spoken openly about it. And I think it's important because at the end of the day, it's a mindset as to how you treat yourself and how you treat life and whether you want to be around. And if you do want to be around, then there's other people, if you're not, who are going to really be disadvantaged by it. So you've got to consider them as well. The takeaway is that get some education, learn about it. If you've got a problem, go to a doctor. No one else needs to know except the doctor. That's fine. That's all that happens.

Steve (veterinary surgeon): Well, Dick, that was a good chat today, mate. I think we busted a few myths there. And hopefully that gives our listeners a bit more confidence.

Dick: It's confidence. And it's just understanding that this is something that we can deal with. It's a cancer that's not going to go away. It's a cancer that's here. And I think as a group, as men, as stoic as we are, I think we can all get together, educate ourselves, improve our state of life, and move on and hopefully save a few lives in the process.