Don't Put it Off :

I went and had a breast examination, and one of those pap smear thingies, today. For those of you (fellas) who don't know what a pap smear thingy is—all you need to know is you don't need one, and they're uncomfortable. (I'm fine, btw.)

Well, actually, they're very uncomfortable. I mean men avoid, and whinge and complain about, having to have prostate examinations but, let me tell you, given the choice of having someone wriggle their digit up my date and letting someone practically stick their fist up my fanny, I know which one I'd take.

Men can be such sooks! In fact I read in Cleo (every woman's bible) a while back that if men and women could take turns to have babies, and the women always had the first one, there'd be three kids in every family!

Ah but I digress...

Anyway, I'd been putting it off, and putting it off. It's not really the discomfort that I've been avoiding, it's just that I don't like visiting my doctor, generally. The worse case scenario is that he'll discover that I'm suffering from some acute life-threatening tropical disease, and the best is that he'll find the usual rust and corrosion and tell me, in so many words, that my body is slowly falling apart at a chronologically acceptable rate.

Of course, he always says I should be exercising more, drinking more water, eating more fibre, and getting more sleep. Piff! Doctors can just be such picky picks, can't they? Mines got all these pictures of himself, in shorts and runners, plastered all around his office. It's like he thinks he's this super fit and healthy being, that all his patients should be trying to emulating.

It's always the same routine, too, he examines me, then just when I'm feeling comfortable and I want to talk about all the things that I'm sure I have, because I read about the symptoms on the internet, he stands up and kind of ushers me out of his office like... well, like I'm perfectly fine!

I ask you, is it any wonder that is always take me so long to get around to make an appointment to see him?

But, more seriously, while chatting with a friend the other day, the importance of breast examinations and pap smear tests for women, and prostate examinations for men, came up. One in three people in Australia will be touched by cancer at some time in their lives. Among adults, the younger you are when you're diagnosed the higher your chances of survival are, for almost all types of cancer. Basically, it's more than worth while to suffer a little discomfort and embarrassment, since early detection provides the best outcome.

So, when was your last check up?