Men STILL dying from prostate cancer because they feel too embarrassed to see GP

MEN are dying from prostate cancer because they feel just too embarrassed to get their "privates" checked out.

Too many still don't want to visit the doctors as they can't face discussing their "personal problems" while others see the checks as an invasion of their privacy.

Now a study of 800,000 English patients found working men are TWICE as likely as women not to have seen their GP over the last two years.

Martin Tod of the Men's Health Forum told the Daily Mail: "Too often men are still expected to be strong, not to ask for help and never show weakness.

";When this means they fail to get checked for prostate cancer, or ask for help too late, that delay, in the worst case, could be fatal.

"Some problems might seem embarrassing, but it is not worth dying of embarrassment."

The number of men dying from the cancer has now overtaken female deaths from breast cancer for the first time in the UK.

It is also the third deadliest cancer in the UK and the disease develops slowly, meaning many men don't know they have it for several years.

Many men live long lives with the condition but it is important to treat it and stop it spreading elsewhere in the body.

Prostate cancer currently kills around 11,000 men-a-year and Prostate Cancer UK warn that this number could surge to 15,000-a-year by 2026.

An ageing population means more men are developing and dying from the disease.

Prostate Cancer UK says advances in the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer are paying off, and increased funding could benefit prostate cancer.

The biggest cancer killers in the UK remain lung and bowel cancer, with prostate now in third place.

Academics have found many men do not want to be examined or were too ashamed to tell their GP about their problems.

The latest figures from 2015 show there were 11,819 deaths from prostate cancer compared with 11,442 from breast cancer.

Although deaths from prostate cancer have been rising over the past 10 years or so, the mortality rate or the proportion of men dying from the disease has fallen - by six per cent - between 2010 and 2015.

For breast cancer the mortality rate has come down by 10 per cent, meaning deaths in women are declining more quickly.