Why Pinktober Sucks! – A guest post by Rod Ritchie

The third week of BCAM is designated as Male Breast Cancer Awareness Week. Roughly 1% of breast cancers occur in men. By the end of 2022, about 2,710 American men are expected to have been diagnosed with breast cancer, and about 530 are expected to have died from the disease. Source: BreastCancer.org.

It’s a pleasure to feature, “Why Pinktober Sucks!” by friend and fellow advocate Rod Ritchie. Rod was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014 and has been advocating for men to be included in discussions and awareness campaigns ever since.

After all, men have breasts and men can, and sometimes do, get breast cancer too.

Thank you for sharing your voice on Nancy’s Point, Rod. And thank you for all you do for ALL breast cancer patients, regardless of stage or gender.

Be sure to ask Rod a question or leave him a comment at the end of this post.

Why Pinktober Sucks!

by Rod Ritchie

October, when the pink products roll out for yet more awareness raising, can be a bad time for breast cancer patients who have grown tired of “Save the Tatas” and other sexualized offerings. I can only imagine how women, especially Stage IV women, get totally upset with all this carry-on.

As a guy with this disease, this month is particularly wearying, since decades of annual awareness campaigns have rolled around every year without proper acknowledgement, or often even any at all, that breast cancer is genderless.

Hello, men get it too. Male breast cancer can and does happen.

In the early sixties, before chemotherapy became the gold standard for extending the lives of breast cancer patients, my mom died from MBC, aged 41, leaving a husband and four young sons.

Fast forward fifty years, and I faced my own breast cancer diagnosis in 2014, aged 64. I was so fortunate that my Stage IIIB IBC was well treated using the tri-modal protocol, with chemo preceding surgery and radiation.

Genetic testing showed a BRCA1 mutant gene, but with a variation of unknown significance (VUS). While this result does not guide clinical decisions, my general practitioner made sure regular PSA tests would pick up signs for prostate cancer.

Sure enough, two years after breast cancer treatment, I was diagnosed with this second cancer, which was treated by robotic prostatectomy.

I did worry about my three brothers and two adult children turning up with a breast cancer diagnosis, so I asked my genetic counsellor if they should be tested. No, she said, because a VUS is not a clinically actionable result. Instead, she recommended they all be made aware of self-checking protocols.

Interestingly, my daughter, in her late 40s, has been booked into the health system for an annual mammogram, but my son, around the same age, does not qualify. This is obviously discriminatory, and I’m lobbying to have men with a family history of the disease included in screening programs.

Advocating for Men

With breast cancer, men are not always in the conversation. And they are often their own worst enemies when it comes to acting on symptoms for just about any disease you name. When they do get to a doctor, their later diagnosis often leads to a poorer prognosis.

Research has proved that their later diagnosis leads to a poorer prognosis.

Fortunately, there are now a lot of websites and social media platforms where men can find other men going through treatment. This wasn’t always the case, and I have to say I pretty quickly jumped on community forums such as BreastCancer.org (BCO) and newly emerging social media to claim a space for men who were more often than not, stigmatized by having a disease that was considered to afflict females only.

On BCO, a group of us — me and several women, made a website, PinktoberSucks.com with a wish to, “bring a full awareness of the reality of the disease to the general public, and ensure that there is transparency in where the proceeds donated end up, the percentage going to reputable medical institutions looking for cures, and the funds publicly accounted for.”

One thing led to another, and social media became the core of the work I wanted to do. Being a publisher and writer, with plenty of media experience, I find the mediums work well for those with the time and inclination to feed the hungry beasts.

Before long, I added another website, MaleBC.org to inform men with our disease and lead them beyond simple awareness.

Things Are Changing

Calling out gender blindness in breast cancer Tweets, Facebook posts, blogs, and on LinkedIn seems like a full-time job, but it’s rewarding and really is achieving results. My breast friend, the late Rob Fincher, and I produced the Male Breast Cancer Manifesto a few years ago, to call for systemic change.

Well, there has been change and many of our wish-list of requests to breast cancer charities have been met, including inclusive language, funds going to research on men, more inclusive imagery, and a reduction in sexual stereotyping.

Obviously, there’s room for lots of improvement, but the corner has been turned. Finally.

For me, eight years down the track, and still taking a daily tamoxifen pill, the NED (no evidence of disease) status for my two cancers is not taken lightly.

Mainly, I connect with others in my situation on social media — regardless of their gender.

Because the work to bring men into the breast cancer discussion is nowhere near finished.

Not even close.

Bio: Rod is a Sydney-born writer, editor, internet publisher, and breast cancer patient activist. Diagnosed in March 2014, with Stage IIIB IBC, he was treated with chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation. Two years later, he was treated for prostate cancer. Currently NED for both cancers. Rod is a Project LEAD graduate and President, Board of Directors, Male Breast Cancer Global Alliance. His website is: MaleBC.org. Follow Rod on Twitter: @malefitness and find him on LinkedIn: Rod Ritchie.

Help spread the word about #malebreastcancer by sharing this post! Thank you in advance.

Are you a man who’s been diagnosed with breast cancer, or do you know a man who has been?

Are the men in your life aware that men sometimes get breast cancer too?

Do you think Pinktober has contributed to men not understanding that men can, and sometimes do, get breast cancer too?

Do you have a comment or question for Rod?