Remembrance Day - Lest we forget the men who did not come home. It is week two of Movember, and day three of our back-to-basics week. England recorded 61,115 prostate cancer diagnoses in 2024, about two thousand more than the year before - and those are men who got an answer, in the year Sir Chris Hoy stopped keeping his to himself. The other two are a man in Northern Ireland who went about a year before anybody looked at him properly and was stage four when they did, and a man of 75 in Australia who had no symptoms at all, got tested because his partner raised it one night, and is back out on his boat. Awareness is key - which is what Prostate Paladin has been saying all along. Use any of the three this week to ask the man in your life when he was last checked, and what the number was. And if he is growing a moustache this month, ask him what it is for. It is a simple test, and it removes a mountain of worry. https://www.skool.com/prostate-paladin-4886/about

This is day five, the last one of the week, and I did not expect the week to finish on actual news. Sixteen years ago a friend told me in the Bangkok airport lounge that I had a prostate problem. I had no idea. I looked into it, made some small changes, made sure to get my PSA checked, and that was about it for years. Here is the part I did not know until yesterday. The guidance sitting behind all of that, the American Cancer Society's advice on who should actually be tested, was written in 2010 and had not been changed since. So for the entire sixteen years I have been reading about this gland, the official answer to "should I be tested" was: have a conversation with your doctor and decide together. Yesterday they changed it. The old advice said a man should have a conversation with his doctor and decide together. That is a large part of why so many of those conversations never happened. Nobody knew what they were deciding. The new advice has actual ages in it. Most men 50 to 69, a blood test every two years. Black men, and men whose father or brother had it before 65, start early at 45 and go yearly. They stop recommending it at 75. I am not a doctor, and this is American guidance, so your own doctor is under no obligation to follow a word of it. But it is the first time in sixteen years that a man asking the question gets an age back instead of a conversation. We have spent this week on the basics. What the gland is, where it sits, what it does, what a number does and does not tell you. This is the part where the basics turn into something you can carry into a room. So, the last question of the week, and it is the one I most want answered. Do you know whether your father or your brother had prostate cancer before they turned 65? Not a guess. Actually know. If you do not, that is tonight's job, and for most of us it is one phone call to the right relative. It was only this year that I found out my brother had prostate cancer almost 5 years ago. I do not believe my father had prostate cancer, but he lived to be 93, so he most likely had prostate issues of some sort.

Last day of Prostate Basics. How do we deal with it? Short version: one step at a time, and the first step is talking. For an enlarged prostate, most men start by keeping an eye on it and making small changes. Less to drink before bed. Less coffee and alcohol. Staying active. Then there are medicines, then smaller procedures, then surgery. Inflammation and cancer have their own options, and a doctor works out which path fits. This week we covered what, where, when, why and how. If you missed a day, the Quick Family Guide to the Prostate in the Classroom has it all in one place. Now I want to hear from you. Which of the five lines did you try this week? What happened? Did he open up, go quiet, change the subject? Your story will help someone else here. And for everyone: download the guide this weekend and read it with him. https://www.skool.com/prostate-paladin-4886/about

A big welcome to you and thank you for joining Prostate Paladin! 🎉Please welcome James, @James Andrews to our community. Prostate Paladin community is all about raising prostate awareness, sharing helpful information, and encouraging open conversations about prostate health. Whether you're here to learn for yourself, support a loved one, or simply understand the topic better, we're glad to have you here. Please check out the Start Here, Prostate 101 Post in the classroom and explore the resources in the there and join the conversations whenever you're ready. Every question, shared experience, and conversation can help someone feel more informed and supported. Let's give our new member a warm welcome in the comments! 👇 Thank you, Alex

Today's question is when. When does the prostate become a problem? My honest answer: long before you notice. Mine is a good example. A friend at the airport pointed out what I had not seen. When I started reading, I realised I had been living with early signs for a while. I had put each one down to getting older. That is how it goes for most men. The prostate grows slowly from about 25 onwards. Each change is small enough to ignore. By the time anyone says the word prostate, it has usually been building for years. About half of men have a prostate issue by 50, and it goes up roughly 10% every decade after. When I looked into it, I made a few small changes and started getting my PSA checked. That is a simple blood test. Nothing dramatic. It just meant I knew where I stood. So, for the men here: what was the first change you noticed? And for the partners: what did you notice before he did? https://www.skool.com/prostate-paladin-4886/about