For accurate diagnosis and appropriate care, a urologist with the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) has encouraged males with urinary issues to consult with licensed medical professionals.
According to Professor James Edward Mensah, this is significant since the hospital was getting an increasing number of patients with advanced prostate cancer who, in most cases, had to take lifelong medications and, worse still, sometimes even lost their lives.
In an interview with the media during Accra’s Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, Professor Mensah, who is also the president of the Ghana Association of Urological Surgeons, said that numerous cases of advanced prostate cancer that were sent to the KBTH arrived there, and when questioned, several of the patients admitted that they had previously sought treatment from herbal clinics.
According to him, those who arrive at the overnight facility early and are given the proper diagnosis and treatment have a better chance of recovering.
Prostate cancer is a malignancy that affects the prostate. Men’s prostates are walnut-shaped glands that secrete seminal fluid, which supports and carries sperm.
In its early stages, this illness may not show any symptoms, but in its mature stages, it may produce symptoms such as erectile dysfunction, difficulty urinating, reduced steam pressure, blood in the urine, blood in the semen, pain in the bones, and blood in the urine and semen.
The second largest cause of male cancer fatalities in Ghana, this disease is known to kill when the cancer has progressed to another section of the body. At the KBTH alone, 20 men are diagnosed with this disease per week. African males and other men are among those who have a higher chance of developing prostate cancer.
Prof. Mensah advised further that men should not trust television and radio advertisements but rather attend the hospital for an early diagnosis when they reach that age.
