Media release from the European Men’s Health Forum
6 December 2010  - for immediate us

The European Men’s Health Forum (EMHF) announces the launch of its pioneering prostate question and answer service in English, Spanish and German - the first prostate research project to ask men what they want to know rather than telling them what they need.

The ‘Your Prostate’ website (www.yourprostate.eu) answers questions from men about all aspects of prostate health from the most general of concerns though symptoms, diagnosis, support and treatment to follow-up care. Building on the success of the English language service run earlier this year, the website is now available in three languages: English, Spanish and German.

Why are the EMHF running this project?

Men across Europe are often reluctant to go to the doctors. This is a far easier way for them to get the information and support they need.

But as well as being an invaluable service to individual men, this is an important research project. Prostate problems remain an issue that men feel uncomfortable discussing and seeking help with. Yet health policy remains clinically driven without any foundations in what men actually experience. This project aims to remedy that.

Two papers based on the earlier research have already appeared in the Journal of Men’s Health.

Do men in Madrid or Munich, Manchester or Marbella think the same way and have similar experiences to men in Berlin or Belfast, Barcelona or Bonn when it comes to the prostate? This insight will be critical when it comes to designing health materials.

‘Encourage men to use this site’

Dr Ian Banks, the president of the EMHF, is calling on health professionals and organisations across the EU to get behind the project. ‘We must all encourage men to use this site,’ he urges. ‘We have valuable data from the first phase of the project and making the service available in other languages will help us to report on similarities and differences across cultural backgrounds.’

Specialist urology nurses and urologists with an interest and experience of working in the field of prostate health will answer the questions men ask on the website.

So please help us to help men by publicising this initiative as widely as possible.

Advertising banners, text for websites, and PDF flyers are available.

Note to editors

1. The European Men’s Health Forum (EMHF), an independent, non-governmental, non-profit-making organisation, is the only European organisation dedicated to the improvement of men’s health in all its aspects, operating as a platform for the collaboration of a wide range of stakeholder groups in Europe.

2. The aims of the ‘Your Prostate’ project (www.yourprostate.eu) are to:

• gather information from men across Europe on their experience of developing prostate problems and the diagnoses, treatment and support they have had from health service providers;

• use this information to produce materials for health professionals and policy makers to aid them in dealing with prostate-related healthcare.

3. The ‘Your Prostate’ English language data collected earlier this year forms the basis of two articles in the Journal of Men's Health, Volume 7, Issue 3, October 2010 ("Talking Prostates" - Banks, Mayor nad Meryn and 'Opening a window on what concerns men about prostate health' - Meryn)

Media Contacts

Veronica Wray: veronica.wray@emhf.org

Jim Pollard: j.pollard@menshealthforum.org.uk