September is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month.
No cancer is good. But thankfully, prostate cancer is one of the cancers that is detectable, curable, and in many cases for older men, slow-moving enough that it might not take their life for 10 to 15 years. That’s why doctors often don’t even treat it for men who get it in their 80s or 90s.
Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers among men, second only to skin cancer. About 300,000 American men will be diagnosed with it in 2025. Around 35,000 American men will die from it this year. Globally, the number is 375,000.
Roughly 1 in 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point in their lifetime.
But for Black men, the story is far worse.
In the U.S., Black men have a 67% higher incidence rate of prostate cancer compared to white men, and they’re twice as likely to die from it. Nearly 1 in 6 Black men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime.
The reasons are multifold.
Black men, and Jewish men as well, carry a greater number of inherited genetic markers that increase risk. This also results in Black men being diagnosed at younger ages than white men.
Socioeconomic and environmental factors add to these unequal numbers. Fewer resources, greater exposure to environmental toxins, limited access to healthy food, higher stress levels, and lack of consistent medical care all contribute to higher illness rates — prostate cancer included.
Another key factor is testing.
Black men get tested far less than white men. This comes partly from mistrust of the health care system after decades of unfair and biased treatment. It also comes from social stigma surrounding anything involving that part of the body, and from lack of adequate health care and insurance.
All of these genetic, social, and environmental factors stacked together create a perfect storm that makes an otherwise detectable and treatable disease a silent killer for Black men.
That’s why the Black fraternal organization Phi Beta Sigma and other organizations have made prostate cancer one of their top national priorities.
Black men should start getting their blood tested between age 40 and 45. Nobody touches your body — it’s just a simple blood test that checks something called your PSA levels. It’s not a perfect test, but it’s far better than doing nothing.
There are also digital rectal exams that sometimes supplement a PSA blood check. They’re less common now, but they can detect lumps that a PSA test might miss.
Whatever your racial or ethnic background, prostate cancer is too common to ignore. For Black and Jewish men, start getting tested no later than age 45.
For the population at large, age 50 is the recommended first check. If you have family members who had prostate cancer, age 40 is when you should begin getting tested.
Do it for your kids. Do it for your wives or partners. Do it for your friends and family who love you. And most importantly, do it for yourself, so you can live a long life not cut short because you didn’t get checked.
Jeffrey Kass is the social action chair of the Denver chapter of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc.
This post originally appeared on Medium and is edited and republished with author's permission. Read more of Jeffrey Kass' work on Medium.