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Know what a TSE is? Testicular Self-Exam. ( see attached)

Turns out it's the most common cancer for folks in my age group. Unlikely, but possible. At a recent health clinic check-up at SHAC (free, since I'm off insurance), folks ran through a battery of helpful areas of concern. (I even saw some of my fellow social work students there, and we met to talk about finances and other things. Great place.) At any rate, one of those notes was a bit on how to do a testicular self-exam. In essence, you roll your testicles around between your fingers and look for lumps - like a breast self-exam but with smaller lumps to hunt for lumps on. But ESSENTIAL to having it be of any use is an intimacy with the current and "usual" shapes of your testicles...meaning to actually develop a relationship with that part of your body. What struck me is how, in a culture where "touching your balls" in a non-sexual context might bring out homophobic fears - this is gross, I'm no F-word, etc. See, to notice change you have to know what it would be changing FROM, so you've got to regularly (monthly) check your balls for lumps sensitively...and masturbation doesn't count here.

A second note of importance were some SCARY stats from that sheet that speak to the sad state of men's health. I feel male culture encourages men to be so afraid of asking for help, so pressured to do whatever the fuck they want (including diet, exercise, whatever) and so weirdly sexualized that "health" means "looking hot to women" and not "feeling great in your own body)... that we're SCREWED health-wise. Check this out.

• Men die at higher rates from the top 10 causes of death.
• Males between ages of 15-19 are five times more likely, and between ages 20-24 seven times more likely than females to commit suicide.
• Over 31,000 men die of prostate cancer each year.
• Men are increasingly isolated from their families due to work or divorce.
• Men suffer 92% of the fatal workplace injuries.
• Boys are far less likely than girls to complete high school.
• Over 80% of suicide deaths are men.
• 80% of the homeless on America's streets are men.
• Men are more likely to suffer Psychological Problems and Mental Illness and 25 times more likely to be sentence to prison.
• Over 75% of all homicide victims are male. 50% of domestic violence is committed against men (I really question this stat).
• Life expectancy for men is 6 years less than for women.
• Between ages 45-54, men are 3 times more likely than women to die of heart attacks.

Now, I think a lot of that is our own damn fault. And a lot of those stats are heavily inflated due to cultural and institutional (vs. personal) racism - like the chances of a man in prison being a person of color vs. a white person. And I'm not saying comparatively to women (or LGBTQ folks), men have it worse. I am saying that the aspects of our culture that are BULLSHIT impact men, too. Advocating men be violent, take-charge and in-charge, pretend to be invincible and run everything at their own (and others') emotional expense takes its toll on men's health. If you're a man, best wishes to avoid these physical maladies by liberating yourself as much as possible from this crazy culture...and helping other men do similar. And, of course, being an ally to others in that culture jamming process (women, LGBTQ folks) helps them and us all. We're all in this together.

And touch your testicles once a month, for goodness sakes.

Labels: social justice