Might as well make this educational (as well as entertaining):
Prostate Cancer
Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers. Almost all men, by the time they reach the age of 80, will have prostate cancer, and some of the treatments are controversial.
Detecting prostate cancer, like all cancers, depends upon a combination of examination by a physician and laboratory testing. The gold standard has always been the digital-rectal examination. In this test, the physician inserts a finger into the rectum and feels the prostate for any lumps. It's amazing how accurate this is, considering that you really can't get your fingers all the way around the prostate gland.
Prostate Self-Exam
It's easy for a man to feel his own prostate gland. It's a walnut-sized organ at the base of the bladder. It can be felt with the tip of a finger inserted into the rectum. Its texture and firmness should be similar to that of the flesh between your thumb and the rest of the hand when you make a tight fist. If you feel anything that is as firm as the knuckle, then that needs to be brought to a physician's attention.
- Excerpted from HealthCentral.com
The article note that his is not a substitute for an annual examination by a trained doctor.
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