Coping skills
Cancer can make huge demands on your ability to cope. Even if you care
for yourself well, you may at times feel overwhelmed or helpless. You
can't be expected to work full time, for example, and fight cancer. It's
important to be realistic when setting goals and expectations.
Physicians
Negligent in Teaching Testicular Self-Exams
Testicular cancer
is the most common malignancy for males between the ages of 15 and 35
years. Although the best way to fight this disease is through early
diagnosis and treatment, less than half of U.S. pediatricians teach
patients how to do testicular self-exams, a study showed.
The study involved
80 women and 49 men who are pediatric or pediatric/internal medicine
residents. About 29 percent of the male residents performed monthly
self-exams, and 40 percent of all the residents taught the exam to their
12- to 21-year-old patients. There was no difference between sexes in
the rate at which they informed patients of the technique.
Most commonly,
study participants said that they "never thought about including it" or
didn’t have time to fit it in as reasons why they did not teach
self-examinations to patients. The most common reason cited by male
residents for why they did not perform their own self-exams was that
they forgot.
Rates of testicular
cancer have risen 42 percent in the past 25 years, and today it accounts
for 20 percent of cancers in males between the ages of 15 and 35 years.
Risk of testicular
cancer is highest among residents of the United States, England and
northern Europe, while residents of Africa, Asia and Puerto Rico have
the lowest risk.
Researchers
suggested that more information should be presented to educate the
public and physicians on the importance of testicular self-exams.
Original Pediatrics
Study March 2003
