The Exam Men Dodge

Read This First

You're reading this because somebody gave it to you, or because something has been nagging at you, or because a man you know got news he didn't see coming. Maybe all three.

Here's the deal. This book is short on purpose and blunt on purpose. It covers the checks men put off: the prostate, the testicles, the chest, the penis, the skin and the bowel. For each one it tells you who actually needs a check, what the check involves (including the finger exam everyone jokes about), which changes are worth booking an appointment for this week, and which ones mean you go to an emergency department today.

It won't scare you with rare cancers. It also won't tell you that a lump is probably nothing. Nobody can tell you that from a book.

What this book is

It's a map. Screening advice depends on your age, your ancestry, your family history and the country you live in. We tell you what the main guidelines say (US, UK, Europe and Kenya where it has its own), whose rule each one is, and what to ask. You and a clinician make the call.

It's practical. Every chapter ends with something to do: a question to ask, a two-minute self-check, a line to add to your calendar. By the end you'll have a filled-in Men's Screening Calendar and, if it works, one appointment booked.

It's on your side. Men have real reasons for avoiding doctors: cost, time off work, fear of bad news, a bad experience last time. We take those seriously and show you ways round them.

What this book is not

• It is not medical advice. It can't examine you, read your blood results or know your history. Use it to get ready for a conversation with a clinician who can.
• A self-check never replaces an examination. Checking your own testicles, chest and skin helps you notice change. Only a clinician, often with a scan or a test, can say what a change is.
• It does not give you a personal screening schedule. The calendar at the back lists what each named guideline says for men in your group. Your own doctor may advise something different because of things this book can't see.
• MediQuestAI does not diagnose, prescribe or sell anything. The link at the back of the book helps you write down your symptoms and family history before you see someone. That's all it does.

About the stories

Where a chapter opens with a real person (a broadcaster, an athlete, an actor, a musician), the facts come from published reports, and we cite them. Everything else is labelled as a composite.

Some stories are composites; names and details are changed. No composite in this book contains a real patient's words, a real clinic's name or a statistic. The numbers live in the main text, each with a source.

Danger now?

Stop reading and get emergency help (911 in the US, 999 or 112 in the UK, 999 or 112 in Kenya, or the nearest emergency department) if you or the man you're with has any of these:

• Sudden, severe pain in a testicle, especially with swelling, feeling sick or vomiting. Minutes matter.
• You can't pee at all, and your lower belly is swollen and painful.
• Fever and shivering with burning when you pee, and you feel very unwell.
• Heavy blood or clots in your pee, or you can't pee because of clots.
• Your foreskin is stuck behind the head of your penis and the head is swelling.
• Heavy bleeding from your back passage, or black, tarry poo with dizziness or fainting.

The same list is on the Go Now card at the back. Take a photo of it.

How to use this book

Find your row. It tells you where to start. You can read the rest in any order.

• 15 to 34 — Ch 1, ch 6 (testicles) — Ch 8 (penis and HPV), ch 9 (skin) — Testicular cancer is a young man's cancer. Skin and HPV checks start now.
• 35 to 44 — Ch 1, ch 6, ch 9 — Ch 2 (urinary symptoms), ch 4 if you're Black or your father or brother had prostate cancer — Some guidelines start the prostate conversation earlier for higher-risk men.
• 45 to 54 — Ch 2, 3, 4 — Ch 5 (the finger exam), ch 10 (bowel), ch 7 (chest) — This is when prostate and bowel screening decisions usually start.
• 55 to 74 — Ch 2, 3, 10 — Ch 5, 7, 9 — The main screening years for prostate and bowel.
• 75 and over — Ch 2, 3 — Ch 7, 9, 10 — Screening advice changes after 70 to 75. Symptoms still need checking.
• Any age, buying this for a man you love — Ch 1, then ch 11 — The Go Now card — Chapter 11 has the scripts for booking it with him, not for him.

Your one job before chapter 1: find your row above and write the chapter numbers on the first page of whatever you use as a notebook. Then open chapter 11 at the end and you'll see the calendar you're building.

About this book

This book is educational. It is not medical advice, and it is not a substitute for a clinician who knows your history. If you have warning signs now, use the Go Now card or call your local emergency number. For everything else, take the questions in this book to a doctor, nurse or pharmacist.

Facts in this book were checked against sources available in October 2026. Screening guidelines change. Check the date on any guideline before you rely on it.

Why Men Avoid the Doctor

Bill Turnbull spent fifteen years on the BBC Breakfast sofa telling the country what was going on in the world. Then, for a long stretch, something was going on in his own body and he didn't look.

He had aches and pains that went on for a long time. He put them down to "old age". He'd had prostate tests at 40 and at 50, and after that he stopped going. He later said he was "cross" with himself for having been proud of not seeing a GP for four years. He went in only when painkillers no longer took the edge off.

In November 2017, aged 62, he was told he had prostate cancer. It had already spread to the bones in his legs, hips, pelvis and ribs. "Maybe if I'd got it earlier and stopped it at the prostate," he told the Radio Times, "I'd be in a much better state". He spent the years he had left telling other men to get tested. He died at home in Suffolk on 31 August 2022, aged 66. His family said it had been "a great comfort to Bill that so many more men are now testing earlier for this disease" .

Turnbull wasn't careless and he wasn't stupid. He did what most men do. He felt mostly fine, he was busy, the pain had an obvious explanation, and the doctor could wait. This chapter is about that habit, what it costs, and how to get round it without pretending your reasons aren't real.

The One Thing

Feeling fine is not the all-clear. Prostate cancer often has no symptoms at first, and aches you've put down to age can be the first sign it has already spread. Most of the cancers in this book are very treatable when they're found before they hurt.