Seabrook challenges men to get checked

That was the light-hearted message provided by Pastoralist and Graziers Association of WA (PGA) president Tony Seabrook who, having being diagnosed with prostate cancer 13 years ago, organised a Men's Health Evening at the York Recreation Centre last Wednesday.

Mr Seabrook said the event aimed to remove some of the stigma and urban myths, raise awareness and provide information about the various, modern treatment options available.

Due to his prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels (a blood test used to monitor the progression of prostate cancer in men) being low when he was diagnosed, Mr Seabrook said he had been able to put off surgery for 10 years.

However after a decade passed, despite his PSA levels remaining low, he was advised to undergo another biopsy by his doctor and, upon receiving those results, was told it was time to operate on the cancer.

"I was really pissed off, but I booked in for surgery," Mr Seabrook said.

"It was my wife who actually said to me, why don't we have a think about your treatment options, because in 10 years a lot has changed.

"I had heard about a friend of mine in Birmingham, England, who had initially been given a year to live with her own cancer, undergoing a cyber knife treatment which actually cured the cancer she had.

"Because of the accuracy and potency of that treatment she is still alive today, so I thought damn it, I will go with that and I'm still pretty chuffed that I did."

Knowing more than 40 men who have been diagnosed with the disease, more than half of which are local York farmers, Mr Seabrook said there was a lot of fear associated with the disease and the possible side effects of treatment, such as incontinence and impotence.

"The key message we wanted to get across is that there is a lot you can do to help yourself if you have been diagnosed and if you haven't - make it a priority to go and get yourself tested because early diagnosis radically improves your outcomes, " Mr Seabrook said.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the major regional centres of Mandurah and Bunbury had recorded a 40 and 20 per cent increase respectively in diagnoses of the disease, while Perth's inner suburbs had recorded a 20pc increase in diagnoses.

Perhaps even more concerning is that, while the national average death rate of the disease sits at about 25 people per 100,000, Bunbury and the Great Southern region are losing about 28 people to the disease, while the Wheatbelt recorded a death rate of 31.

Mr Seabrook said he wasn't surprised that regional areas had recorded higher death rates from prostate cancer than their city counterparts, saying a lack of access to health services was partly to blame.

"A lot of them think I'm too bloody busy at the moment, so they put it on the backburner and are much slower to get medical check-ups and respond to health ailments," he said.

"A trip to the doctor in Perth is often just halfway across a suburb and no big deal, but a trip to the doctor in regional WA is a much bigger thing - it usually takes half a day, so a lot of farmers tend to put it off until after harvest and then it becomes after seeding and then it becomes after shearing.

"Farmers, in particular, tend to be a pretty independent bunch and are probably more inclined to want to tough things out, but PSA testing is, at a certain time in your life, a very important thing to do, because if you don't get diagnosed early enough it can damn well kill you."

As the PSA test is reimbursed by Medicare, there are no out-of-pocket expenses.

Mr Seabrook encouraged men to take their health and future into their own hands and get tested.

About 75 people attended the event, of which about two thirds were farmers, to listen to presentations by Icon Cancer Centre radiation oncologist Eve Tiong, 5D Clinics clinical operations director Peter Podias, Restorative Sexual Health Clinic nurse practitioner/ sexologist Melissa Hadley Barrett, Green Shirts Movement Australia's Alan Sattler and The Regional Men's Health Initiative's Owen Cato.

Dr Tiong said she wasn't surprised that more men were dying from prostate cancer than ever before, due to it being the most common cancer diagnosed in Australia.

"We also know that the outcomes are worse off for all cancers in regional or rural settings because of the lack of access to good health care," Ms Tiong said.

"Patients I've seen that live in the country have been reluctant to seek care because it's too difficult to get to, but they need to know that there is help close to home, as more and more specialists are hiring out rooms in regional and rural centres so they can treat patients."

At her Midland practice, prostate cancer patients form about 30-40pc of her client base and Dr Tiong also provides her services regionally, hiring out a room in Northam once a month.

Nurse practitioner and sexologist Ms Barrett spoke about some of the possible side effects of prostate cancer treatments, including incontinence and erectile dysfunction.

"There is a bit of a misconception in the community that everyone knows someone that had surgery done 10 years ago, or even five years ago, that has really bad long-term side effects," Ms Barnett said.

"Those things are nowhere near as bad now and if people knew that they would hopefully get tested more."

Ms Barrett said while newer treatments. including cyber knife, robotic surgery and targeted radiation still had side effects, the outcomes were much better as well as the long-term quality of life of prostate cancer patients.

"The radiologists and surgeons get very competitive with each other, but they have both gotten exponentially much better in reducing side effects," Ms Barrett said.

"Understandably men would prefer not deal with things like erectile dysfunction, but they shouldn't make a decision about their health based on things like that which are much easier to deal with these days than they used to be.

"Sex might not be the same, but it does not mean that it can't be good."

At the Men's Health Evening, Ms Barrett had the audience in stitches and impressively as a result of her talk, some attendees have already booked appointments with her.

"If you can't be entertaining when you're talking about penises - it's pretty sad isn't it," Ms Barrett said.

Mr Seabrook said it took courage for men to face the issue of impotence and that most people affected had some disease repercussions.

"It takes a pretty ballsy bloke, to front up to a lady, because the angels in this industry are mostly women and say 'I'm impotent, what do I do?" Mr Seabrook said.

"There are a whole lot of things that you can do about diet, getting cigarettes and alcohol out of your life, weight management and pelvic floor exercises - there's a massive regime of things that a survivor can do to enhance their life.

"So don't give up, don't shut down, don't stop talking to your mates or your wife or your medical practitioner - and take charge of the outcome, whichever way it is."

p More information: prostate.org.au