No one in their right mind enjoys the idea of getting any kind of cancer. The bad news is, if you live long enough, some of your cells are just bound to mutate enough to be called cancerous. However, this is not some kind of “advanced stage of evolution” that will make you into a powerful superhero. Cancers tend to kill people, for all of the mighty advancements that medical science has been making over the years. And prostate cancer does have the potential to metastasize, and spread, and go to areas that will stop your breathing, your circulation, your brain function or your nervous control. In short, prostate cancer is potentially as dangerous as any other kind of cancer.

Unfortunately, that is not the full length of the bad news. The really bad part is how unbelievably sensitive the cancer tests we currently have happen to be. To put things into perspective, a woman can typically find out if she has breast cancer through a pap smear only once it has reached stage 3. At that stage of the game, it may have already spread elsewhere in her body, and death may only be months (or even weeks) away from occurring.

On the other hand, a man may have prostate cancer detected when it is only a few individual cells in his prostate. This barely qualifies as stage 1, and metastasis is not even guaranteed at that point. And while it is great to be able to know if you have cancer at a super early stage, it would seriously suck if you gave up your prostate (and your ability to ejaculate), without your life actually being under anything approaching an imminent threat. That is the kind of decision nobody wants to make – just make sure to make it while sober.