I read a study this week that I have not stopped thinking about. A team in Los Angeles recorded fifty first appointments for men newly diagnosed with prostate cancer, with nine different specialists, and then marked every single sentence the doctor said out of five. Not for whether it was correct. For how specific it was. Nought out of five meant the subject never came up. One out of five meant it got named, with no number on it. Five out of five meant a number worked out for that man rather than for men in general. How serious the cancer was came out at five out of five. Side effects, and how the man was doing right then in the bathroom and the bedroom, came out at one out of five. Before anybody blames the doctors, these were nine experienced specialists who knew they were being recorded. If a careful room looks like that, the problem is the conversation, not the person having it. They also found a gap by race, and that one needs the comparison said out loud rather than left as a bare number. The study put the fifty men into two groups. Black or African American, and white or other. It compared their overall scores on that same nought to five scale. The Black patients came out at 2.4 out of 5. The white and other patients came out at 3.1 out of 5. So one group was typically getting a rough number, and the other was typically getting closer to a name with nothing attached. The gap was widest on how many years a man was likely to have. That is in the paper and I am not going to skip past it. Fifty men at one hospital, so treat it as a signal rather than a verdict. Here is what I want to ask you, and please answer it straight. Think back to the appointment where you or your man got the news. Did anybody put a number on the side effects? Or was it a list of words? I have a feeling I know the answer. Tell me if I am wrong. https://www.skool.com/prostate-paladin-4886/about

Researchers at the University of Oklahoma have a five year grant to work out what actually gets a man to take a prostate test. They built an app. Fine. But the piece they built into it is the interesting part. A man can ask for a confidential phone call with another man who has already been through prostate cancer, before he decides anything. That is it. A phone call. Funded, designed, and studied like it matters. Because apparently it does. I keep coming back to this one because of how I found out about my own prostate. A friend told me in an airport sixteen years ago. Not a doctor. Not a leaflet. Not a website, because there was nothing on them back then worth reading. A friend who noticed and said something. I think almost everyone here has a version of that moment, or the absence of one. So. Who told you first? Your doctor, your wife, a mate, or did you piece it together on your own? And if the honest answer is that nobody has ever told you anything, say that. I suspect it is the most common answer in the room and the one nobody puts in writing. https://www.skool.com/prostate-paladin-4886/about

A man posted in a prostate support group at three in the morning. His tablet is not doing the job. His doctor, he says, is no help and just wants to operate. And he keeps seeing adverts for quick solutions he has no way to check. Three in the morning is the detail that got me. That is not a man doing research. That is a man awake because he needs to piss again and there is nobody to ask. I have had BPH for sixteen years. I know that hour. Here is the part that bothers me. He is not short of information. He is drowning in it. What he is short of is one straight answer about what comes after the tablet, and nobody has given him that answer. If you are on something for your prostate, do not stop taking it on your own. Take it to your doctor as a question instead. Ask what the next step is, and how the two of you would know you had reached it. I want to ask the room something. When you were put on a tablet, did anyone ever tell you what happens if it stops working, or if you are not happy with the way things are going? Trust me you want to know some answers before it becomes an emergency. https://www.skool.com/prostate-paladin-4886/about

Three men this week, and every one of them kept asking after somebody had already given them an answer. One was told in 2021 he did not have cancer, carried on watching his PSA anyway, and was caught in 2025 before it got away from him. Another asked whether there was a treatment that would let him stay active, and nine years on his PSA is still negligible. There is also the single most useful number I have printed in a while: if a close relative was diagnosed, start asking ten years before the age he was. Awareness is key - which is what Prostate Paladin has been saying all along. Use one of these to start the conversation with the man in your life. It is a blood test, and it takes a mountain of worry off him. https://www.skool.com/prostate-paladin-4886/about

The Prostate Paladin Classroom is designed to take you from understanding the basics of prostate health through to practical information you can use for yourself or someone you care about. If you're starting from the beginning, begin with Welcome to Prostate Paladin and then move into Start Here – Prostate 101 Awareness. These sections give you the foundation and help you understand the prostate, where it is, what it does and what changes with age. Once you have the basics, Prostate 201 – Understanding takes you deeper into topics including BPH, prostatitis, prostate cancer, symptoms, the DRE, PSA, imaging, biopsy and understanding a diagnosis. The Classroom also contains practical guides you can use when a particular situation comes up. These include resources for families, starting conversations, preparing for a doctor's appointment, understanding the DRE and PSA testing, and learning more about home PSA tests and prostate supplements. You don't have to go through everything in one sitting. Start with the basics, work through the Classroom at your own pace, and return to the practical guides whenever you need them. Head over to the Classroom and begin with “Welcome to Prostate Paladin.”