Published on
Updated
Reading 2 mins.
The month of November is associated with Movember, an action that aims to give visibility to male cancers. A subject that needs to be played down, as it still seems taboo for many men.
For nearly one in two men, cancer remains a taboo subject. In any case, this is what emerges from a survey carried out by Livi, a digital health operator associated with the Opinéa Institute. They questioned 1,010 French people aged 18 to 75, representative of the population, about their perception of cancer and cancerous pathologies.
A subject that remains sensitive among young people
The results of the survey also show that the subject of cancer is not “not at all“a taboo for only 20% of men.”It’s good but it’s too little“analyzes Dr. François Burté, general practitioner, member of the Medical Department at Livi.
“We must continue to improve this trend by freeing up more talk about these diseases with serious medical consequences and which benefit greatly from early treatment.“.
And among young people aged 18 to 35, the opposite phenomenon is observed: 56% of 18-35 year olds say they do not talk about it. An age group less exposed to the disease, but still affected by certain cancers affecting young men, such as testicular cancer.
The fear of death
For 70% of the 56-75 year olds questioned, the fear of death is the first obstacle mentioned, which prevents them from talking about the disease. “Yes, we keep dying of cancer” concedes Dr. Burté.
“According to Public Health France, the estimate of the total number of deaths amounts to 157,000 in 2018, of which 57% are in men. But even if the overall number of new cases of cancer in France increases each year (ageing of the population, improved diagnoses, etc.), conversely, the mortality rate has been constantly decreasing for 25 years. This is explained by the improvement of treatments and diagnostics which make it possible to detect cancers at an earlier stage and therefore to manage them more effectively..
Fewer screenings for men
Finally, the figures from this study reveal that 78% of the men surveyed said they had not screened for cancers specific to men. “A great deal of awareness-raising work remains to be done concerning male cancers“says the doctor again.
“Initiatives like Movember are to be welcomed. There are more and more campaigns to inform about breast cancer or women’s health more generally. In the same way, awareness of cancers specific to men must be increased to free up speech and encourage them to be screened, in order to take charge of possible cancers as soon as possible.