Home

Men encouraged to assist spouses in checking breast cancer lumps

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Limpopo’s Health MEC Phophi Ramathuba has encouraged men to assist in checking if their spouses could have breast cancer.

Ramathuba has launched the provincial breast cancer awareness month in Polokwane with a special focus on the role of men in preventing the disease.

She says many women choose to ignore the signs and silently endure the pain, which is why men need to be vigilant.

“We are saying to you, you know the breast of your spouse better than any other person and it is through you that we can be able to utilise you to say, during that period when you are involved in your intimacy, please assist us in examining the breast. You can tell us that this breast is no longer normal. When you see that the skin is peeling and pick up that there is a lump. We will be able to pick up the breast cancer at an early stage.”

The Health Department has also encouraged men to go for regular breast and prostate cancer screenings.

Breast cancer survivor Bobby Were says he was diagnosed in 2008 and underwent more than five years of treatment.

“I had a mastectomy and chemotherapy, as well as six weeks of radiation, and then followed by five years of tamoxifen pills, which were hormone blockers and I could have saved myself a lot of bother had I gone and had it checked when I first felt a lump. But because we believe that guys don’t get it, because cancer is not painful when it starts. I left it and left it and left it. I have lymphedema now, one arm is bigger than the other. I have to go for drainage therapy, which is not painful, but it’s uncomfortable.”

WATCH HEALTH TALK ON BREAST and CERVICAL CANCER:

Author

MOST READ