Here's where I resolutely beg to differ with this lazy and spineless mindset. I invite anyone to watch their dad die of metastatic prostate cancer as I just did this past November, and then tell me we should downplay the significance of this disease. If it's cancer it's cancer, and trying to pass it off as something else is a disservice to men. And guess what: My dad was a retired physician, and he followed his own training in writing off prostate cancer as something that might cause him harm. He was old enough by contemporary "wisdom" that he felt he'd die of something else before prostate cancer ever had the chance to cause his demise, so he didn't pursue getting checked out. Thus his cancer went unchecked, it invaded his bones and lymph nodes, and was far too advanced when discovered to make a sustainable cure possible. It was a miracle in and of itself that hormone treatments were able to extend his life by ~6 years, but sooner or later the cancer becomes resistant, and then you die horribly. This is no joke. This form of cancer it that bad.
My overall pet peeve with society is how we're compelled to dumb down terminology because people are either too ignorant or too chicken to deal with it. Stop dumbing it down, dammit. Simply teach people those "big" words-- Teach patients the reality of prostate cancer: First of all, IT'S CANCER. It's not a hangnail, it's not a goiter: CANCER. Second of all, most patients present the slow growing variety. Great. But it's CANCER, and you must proactively get yourself regularly checked for any worrisome progression. Creating a false sense of security because as a practitioner you're too chicken to tell it like it is doesn't help anyone. Lay out the facts, deal with them logically and intelligently, and stop trying to downplay a disease that essentially impacts HALF OF THE ENTIRE HUMAN POPULATION ON THIS PLANET.
