I am in my mid 40s and I grew up with the national and private TV stations of my country showing adverts financed by the Ministry of Health about how breast screening was free and showing videos of how it was carried out.

I've noticed that I have been getting up at night to pee. Usually, I slept throughout the night. So, I phoned my father and had an uncomfortable conversation with him about prostate exams. He told me that his one yearly blood screening, among other things, looks for signs of prostate cancer. He has to pay for this. But when it is not cancer, it may mean that the prostate is getting bigger and a doctor can check for this with a manual exam. I too have yearly blood tests, which I pay for, but I am ashamed to ask for a manual exam.

The thing is that this topic is not spoken about and TV advertising only speaks of screening related to female cancers. So my father told me to go with him for his next screening and he'll tell his doctor to check me - as I feel uncomfortable speaking about the subject.

I looked up prostate cancer and I found out that it kills more men than breast cancer kills women - yet we never hear about it.