Man narrates how a small pimple on nipple turned out to be Breast Cancer

The month of October is globally recognized as breast cancer awareness month. And even though the disease mostly affects women, men too can get breast cancer.

Unfortunately many men get their breast cancer diagnosis rather late owing to many factors such as their physique and stigma.

Steve Ouda had small pimple that he spotted on his right nipple in 1993 and it remained painless for years.

As he grew older, the pimple also kept growing silently but later on mutated to become a nagging wound.

Ouda says he made several trips to local health facilities in Siaya but none suggested that he undergoes a cancer screening

Meanwhile, the wound was growing as he desperately relied on pain killers and periodic bandage dressing.

The swelling bills pushed him out of hospital and home care was not any better since he had an aging and ailing mother.

Ouda would later return to hospital where he met an oncology nurse who was on a cancer outreach mission in Siaya

That is when he was diagnosed with Breast Cancer, more than 3 years after his wound began to mutate.

“Generally, men tend to shy away from seeking medical help. Why nipple/breast size changes in men may be had to pick early. One patient was told he was just growing up or a spider might have bitten him. The stigma. Men often don’t pay much attention to the breast area,” Dr. Primus Ochieng’ explains why screening for breast cancer in men is often not prioritized.

Lack of medical training and exposure to cancer cases may also limit healthcare providers from recognizing and or referring cancer patients to appropriate medicare. Technology also presents gaps in cancer screening for men.

“The mammogram that is often used in screening females does not favour the male patients. Very difficult to put male breast between the mamogramme plates, routinely we don’t screen men,” Dr. Ochieng’ adds.

She adds that some men ignorantly settle for homecare and hire private nurse aid to dress the wound at home mostly due to shame of the wound.

On his part, Ouda tasted the bitter pill of stigma; “people would run away from me because of the wound.”

He found acceptance and care when the International Cancer Institute booked him at their Eldoret facility and catered for his surgery and upkeep during the treatment.

Some common symptoms of breast cancer in men include:

• a lump or swelling in the breast.
• redness or flaky skin in the breast.
• irritation or dimpling of breast skin.
• nipple discharge.
• pulling in of the nipple or pain in the nipple area (source: cdc, 2020) 

The world health organization puts the number of new cases of cancer in Kenya at 42116 with over 27092 cancer related deaths reported in the year 2020.