How Men Can Age With Dignity
The winter holidays are coming up, and another year is soon approaching. With another year comes another birthday, and getting older for men may mean dealing with more health issues like prostate enlargement. It can be embarrassing, and many men may not deal with such issues until its too late. So how can we ensure that older men can age gracefully and with dignity?
Preventative care and knowledge from an earlier age is a good start. Let’s face it, unless you’re in medical school or an anatomy class, your sex ed teacher may not go on about the prostate much, let alone BPH, the medical term for prostate enlargement. You may not ever hear about prostate enlargement until you’re at the urologist getting a diagnosis. That’s why it’s important to get the conversation on men’s health spreading instead of worrying once the problems are already prevalent.
Practicing a healthy lifestyle isn’t a 100% safeguard against sickness and disease, but you could reduce your incidence rate and lessen the aggravation of symptoms that do come up, be that through doctor recommendations, conversations with fellow men, safe and natural treatments, etc.
Eliminating the stigma behind the prostate is also important. Let’s stop treating the prostate as just the butt of jokes involving digital exams by doctors. Although rectal exams have gotten a bad rep in mainstream media and the recommendation of DRE checkups has been up for debate, perhaps we can agree that check ups in the doctors are nevertheless still important to ensuring that men are leading healthy lives and that their quality of life isn’t compromised even in older age.
By creating an environment for men to feel comfortable discussing and seeking help for their health, we can get closer to helping men live longer, healthier lives and aging with dignity.