Cancer awareness and Peeing

March is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month – though I've seen very little in the media about this. According to the Prostate Cancer Charity, 70% of men don't know where the prostate is, let alone what it does. Prostate cancer affects almost as many men as breast cancer affects women. There are 35,000 men diagnosed every year with prostate cancer compared to 44,000 women with breast cancer. 10,000 men die of prostate cancer every year compared with just over 12,000 women that die of breast cancer each year.

Now that's cheered you all up, think of the warning signals. Basically this is men having trouble peeing. This doesn't mean they have cancer – it tends to happen with age – but it's always worth trying to get them to go and see their GP (I find threatening divorce usually works).

Treatment is varied but often is hormone therapy (taken via tablet form) which is usually very successful. There are side effects, one of which can be inability to get an erection. Depending on age, this might not matter, but for younger men (and/or their wives) this can be very upsetting.

Still, if this does happen, there are instances (dependent on the medical background of the man) where a Viagra type drug can be supplied. Always ask your GP or specialist nurse.

So the motto of this is that every cloud has a silver lining. In other words, yes, it is possible to get Viagra on the NHS!