Right after Pink October (breast cancer awareness month), November is men’s health awareness month with the “Movember” movement. Movember is obviously the contraction of “moustache” and “November” but the real meaning of this awareness campaign is sometimes unknown.  Let’s explain it.

Growing moustaches to raise awareness

Created in 2003, Movember’s aim is to raise awareness of male  cancers and tackle the prevention of these health issues. Talking about male cancers means talking about prostate cancer and testicle cancer.

Prostate cancer is the most frequent male cancer in developed countries (1,1 million of new cases were identified all over the world in 2012, of which 53000 in France).

Taking care of such a disease is a major public health issue in view of the continuous increase of life expectancy.

Testicle cancer is a rarer tumor affecting 2320 new cases each year. Medical progress have made it possible to decrease its death rate by 40% since 1990’s and reach an almost 90% recovery rate. Nevertheless this cancer is the most common among young men (peak incidence between 15 and 34 years old).

A successful movement

Movember’s success is still vivid as there are more and more individual and group awareness actions year after year.

It might seem like a small gesture, but growing a moustache is now quite commonplace in November. Lots of public figures are playing the game in order to raise awareness around these male cancers. Let’s take the example of the French trail runner Yoann Stuck or the player of the Bordeaux soccer team who wore a special jersey.

Movember’s mid-term objective is to reduce by 25% the number of men who died prematurely because of these diseases before 2030.

More information available on Movember‘s website.