Tag: Men’s Health
The Chevron, the Dali or the Handlebar – what moustache will you choose to grow this Movember?
Movember is the time of year when men across the globe ditch their razors to ‘Grow a Mo’.
‘Movember’ is the leading global men’s health charity raising money to find research in 3 main areas; prostate cancer, testicular cancer and mental health and suicide prevention. Movember aims to open up conversations and remove the stereotype of a ‘strong, silent man’ so they can stop men from dying too young.
Since being launched, Movember has raised over $837 million for men’s health issues – much of which has been invested in research centres around the country as well as worldwide. Movember have funded more than 1,200 men’s health projects all around the world. This would not be possible if they did not receive continued support from all those that donate every day.
The goal of Movember is to “change the face of men’s health” – quite literally every November!
The foundation is taking action on three key health issues faced by men, prostate cancer, testicular cancer and mental health and suicide.
Prostate Cancer-
In the UK, one man dies of prostate cancer every 45 minutes. That is a shocking statistic!
Thanks to research and funding more men are being diagnosed earlier and living longer, however, this does not mean that we should stop raising vital funds for more research. Our clinic offers a comprehensive Prostate Cancer check with an experienced doctor, who will address your concerns, explain the testing process, discuss the results with you, and arrange any follow-up that may be necessary. The Prostate cancer check will include a detailed health discussion including lifestyle and family history, internal (rectal) examination of the prostate gland and a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test.
Testicular Cancer –
Testicular Cancer is the most common cancer among young men in the UK and often can strike quickly.
Knowing the symptoms can help with earlier detection which will help save lives. Testicular cancer starts as an abnormal growth or a tumour that develops in one or both testicles. A lump or swelling of the testicle, a heavy scrotum and discomfort or pain in the testicle or scrotum are some of the more common symptoms which all men should be aware of.
Mental Health –
Part of the stigma, that still exists about mental health for men is that men have greater difficulty talking about their struggles than women do.
The Movember Foundation has funded programmes all around the world to help support men’s resilience and mental well-being, encouraging them to talk about their problems and prevent suicide. Moustache season is about men growing real moustaches and being encouraged to talk about mental health.
Important men’s health tests at Fleet Street Clinic –
A Well Person Medical (From £299) –
Standard – A standard well person medical is a 1-hour appointment with one of our experienced GPs. During your appointment, our GP will review your medical history, any medications you are on and conduct a physical examination. This is supported by a number of tests to review your current health including a urine analysis and blood test to check for infection markers, glucose, protein and cholesterol levels, and your liver and kidney function. For Men, our GPs will also carry out a prostate examination.
Executive – An executive well person medical is a 1.5 hours appointment with one of our experienced GPs. You benefit from all the services included within our standard well person medical, as well as a few extras like a bowel cancer screening test (faecal immunochemical test – a FIT test) and an audiometry (hearing test). For Men, our GP will also carry out a physical prostate examination and a prostate PSA blood test.
Prostate Cancer Check (£175) –
Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men in the UK. Early diagnosis often leads to a better outcome and so regular screening is essential to alleviate unnecessary worry and to catch the cancer early.
A prostate cancer check is carried out by one of our experienced male GPs. It consists of a detailed health discussion about your current health, your prostate cancer risk including lifestyle risk factors and family medical history. An internal (rectal) examination of the prostate gland is done alongside a prostate specific antigen (PSA) blood test.
The blood sample for your PSA blood test is sent by courier to our nearby pathology laboratory. Our GP will let you know when to expect your results and when they will discuss that with you, along with any follow-up required.
As a specialist travel clinic, we are passionate about travel and get inspired by stories from our patients every day.
We meet interesting people day in, day out, both at the clinic and when we’re doing trade shows.
Following a chance meeting at the Adventure Travel Show in January, we felt inspired to support Damian King as he embarks on an extreme adventure across India.
Damian explained his plans to walk from North India to South India – starting at Kashmir and ending in Kanyakumari. This is a total of 2,547km aiming for 30miles per day – which is no easy feat!
Not only is Damian’s mission a personal extreme adventure to tick off the bucket list but a way to raise awareness and fundraise for CALM, Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM). If you are unfamiliar with this charity, they are leaders in the movement against male suicide. Which, unfortunately, is still the single biggest killer of men under 45 in the UK.
It is a sad fact that on average 84 men take their lives every week in the UK. As a society, we need to remove the stigma of mental health as a whole but specifically around gender expectations, gender norms and toxic masculinity which has embedded itself with our culture. As healthcare professionals, we strongly believe in promoting a healthy lifestyle, advocate for disease prevention and highlighting the importance of self-care and wellbeing. This is why we so passionately decided to support Damian. To be in some way a small (but essential) part of his adventure and assist in raising awareness for male suicide felt thrilling and essential. Part of our company ethos is to support the adventurous traveller so we said yes to becoming his medical partner, offering support for vaccinations, travel advice, medical kits, podiatry advice and also nutritional advice.
“The decision to work with the guys at Fleet Street Clinic was quite simple. I required a varied number of services which they offered. They are centrally located in between the West End and City, and more importantly, it doesn’t have the clinical feel of a doctors surgery like many do.”
– Damian King
As a specialist travel clinic, we advocate the importance of good health whilst travelling and assist travellers to view health as one of the most important aspects of their adventure holiday. We have assisted with Damian in his preparation for his adventure from top to toe. Important parts of his pre-travel preparation were travel vaccinations alongside travel advice; highlighting risks from the weather, insects, animals, food and water. Other important health checks included a visit to the podiatrist to ensure his feet remained healthy during training and whilst walking, the nutritionist to speak about the impact of his diet whilst travelling and what he should and shouldn’t be eating in preparation for such a drastic amount of exercise and an in-body scan to document his training efforts which looks at weight distribution, muscle mass and body fat percentage.
We are proud to be a part of Damian’s journey and we wish him a fantastic and safe adventure. If you would like to follow Damian King’s adventure, you can find out more on his blog or on his Instagram.
If you are thinking of embarking on your own travel adventure and need a travel consultation appointment, you can book online.