Most of us tacitly assume that male sex organs are on the outside, and female organs on the inside. But men, of course, have internal sex organs, just like women. Chief among the internal male sex organs is the prostate. It's a gland overlooked, unnoticed, and ignored too often and too long for it to be healthy. If men are going to enjoy the long, healthy, and sexually balanced lives they are entitled to, this needs to change.
The prostate is among the organs men relate to least, even though it makes up roughly a third of their reproductive system, fulfills a score of important bodily responsibilities, and is the organ second most vulnerable to cancer in men. It is also a treasure trove of sexual pleasure that, perhaps for homophobic tendencies, goes untapped.
These days, the prostate is mentioned regularly in public discussions of sexuality or of men's sexual health, but when it comes to individual men relating to their prostates in a healthy way, a lot has to change.
Even in the most intimate conversations between a man and his (usually female) partner, feelings of unease often surround any contact with the prostate. These feelings are brought about by a state of ignorance as well as trepidation about coming to terms with an unknown and often times not totally knowable aspect of their sexuality.
Our puritanical heritage explains why sexual taboos, however personal and unconscious, still surround the prostate. It is unknown and hidden away inside our wretched bodies, just waiting to malfunction and cause heartache and pain, as is characteristic of everything human.
But since it was not necessary to think about it until recently, the prostate hasn't yet been normalized through familiarity, everyday utility and love in the way the balance of human sexual organs have been in the past 50 years. For instance, starting with the women's movement and culminating with the publication of the "Vagina Monologues," women began to reject the taboos containing, enshrouding and controlling their sex organs; especially the clitoris.
But men were not as lucky, because everyone assumed that since men were putting people in bondage, they themselves couldn't possibly be in the kind of bondage women were in. So no one, until very recently, had actively worked to acclimatize men to their sexual bodies so that they would be able to care for and appreciate them.
Before Tom Green and Lance Armstrong publicly went through testicular cancer, young men rarely paid much practical attention to their testicles, just as old men rarely came to terms with their prostates.
But now that male sexual health is a topic of public, official discourse, it needs to become a topic of private, informal discourse as well. Women don't hesitate to tell other women about the new human papilloma virus vaccine, or about the need to perform breast self-exams, but men are loathe to discuss their prostates with their fellows, or even with their partners.
Prostate cancer is not something that is striking down young, college age men left and right, so it isn't something we ever think about. But that dark, cancerous cloud is only a few years away for a growing number of us. Testicular cancer tends to strike men between 18 and 40, and checking for testicular cancer is much easier than checking for prostate cancer. Not to mention that the testicles are right out there, hanging around.
Perhaps this is why prostate cancer and other sicknesses of the prostate go unnoticed. But according to the journal "Prostate," younger and younger men are falling prey to prostate cancer as the years go on. No one is exactly sure why, but some attribute it to higher levels of artificial hormones in our drinking water, and a pervasively less active and healthy lifestyle. Either way, we are facing ever greater risks for prostate cancer, and should be aware of this threat.
