You’ve probably seen some interesting looking facial hair during the month of November. Chances are, those mustaches were being grown in support of Movember®, a global campaign that literally aims to change the face of men’s health. It started in 2003 over a beer in Australia. 

The Movember® initiative is incredible- to educate, provide resources, and support innovative research regarding mental health and suicide prevention, prostate cancer, testicular cancer, male-specific quality of life concerns, and advice for parenting.

Movember® is more than mustaches and men’s health is more than sexual health. As a men’s health specialist, I evaluate and treat men for a variety of health concerns that include:

Bothersome urinary symptoms: frequency and/or urgent urination, weak urinary stream, prolonged time to start one’s stream, sensation of incomplete bladder emptying, pain with urination, dribbling after urination, leakage of urine with activity, nighttime urination

Sexual dysfunction: too soon, prolonged, or inability to orgasm, decreased genital sensation, difficulty getting and/or maintaining erection, penile curvature, penile shortening, inability to expose one’s penis due to surrounding tissue/scar, low sex drive

Hormone concerns: low testosterone, breast tenderness or swelling, reduced energy, depressive symptoms, reduced motivation, poor concentration, irritability, difficulty gaining muscle mass and/or losing weight, brain fog, inability to have a child

Pelvic/genital pain: pain involving the lower abdomen, groin, scrotal contents (testicle), penis, urethral tube, perineum (area between scrotum and rectum)

Other common male-specific health concerns include prostate and testicular cancer.

Other than female-specific health concerns, it’s important to know that anything that a woman may suffer from, a man can, too. Men, unfortunately, lack the social support that many women benefit from. Pearlman MD’s support the Movember® campaign to normalize the conversations related to men’s health. The time is now and the stakes have never been so high.