Patrick, a member of Oprah's crew, has two questions for Dr. Oz about
testicular cancer. "Number one is, How often should men check for testicular
cancer?" he asks. "And number two is, What is the exact technique? I mean, what
are we really looking for and what are we trying to feel?"
Dr. Oz says testicular cancer is the number one cancer for young men
between the ages of 15 and 35. "That's why it's so tragic, because you've got
these young, virile, vital guys and they end up with a cancer that, by the time
they do something about it, it's often the size of a softball. That puts you way
behind the eight ball trying to catch up and treat the person—often it's spread
to the other testicle which means they become sterile," he says. "You've got to
know how to examine yourself."
Every man should start self-exams at age 15, Dr. Oz says. "You can do
it whenever you take a bath and you're feeling for subtle differences, and it's
an eminently treatable problem when you encounter it. … You're feeling for
nodules. You're feeling for enlargement of the testicle. You're looking for sort
of a full feeling down there. Sometimes you get fluid," he says. "And what a lot
of folks don't think about, which is important, is you actually get sensitivity
of the breasts because testicular cancers are often endocrine cancers. They send
out chemicals that can change the way you look. Pay attention to those
subtleties and you can save your or someone else's life."
5 weeks ago