Conversations about cancer: male incontinence after prostate cancer

Let's take a minute to talk about the taboo.... toilet trouble for men.

According to ITN's Good Morning Britain, a third of football fans say they know someone who has stopped coming to games regularly because of continence issues (being able to hold your pee/poo) following prostate cancer.

I've not been able to independently verify that statistic, but in my role as a digital communicator, I've worked with enough healthcare providers to know that incontinence is an incredibly common side effect of many cancer treatments, including prostate surgery and radiotherapy to the pelvis.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men over the age of 50, and around 1 in 8 will develop it during their lifetime. Surgery and radiotherapy are two of the most common treatments. Any cancer that also requires pelvic radiotherapy can also cause long term damage to the bladder and bowels too.

While many men do recover from continence issues, their lives shouldn't have to be put on hold while they do. Good Morning Britain is calling for football clubs to start putting sanitary bins in male bathrooms so that anyone affected can go to games with the dignity and discretion that they deserve.

And it got me thinking. While I'd love to see my local club, Gillingham Football Club get involved, I'd also like to see them more widely available too. As someone who doesn't use men's loos, I don't know how widely available sanitary bins there are, but they should be made available across all genders for anyone who needs them.

I'll be talking to our friends at GFC about this in the near future, but I'm curious to know from my male friends, is this something you've ever seen or thought about? Would you use them if you needed to?