We offer a range of clinics and services here at Honeypot Medical Centre to support men’s health and help maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Male-pattern baldness is the most common type of hair loss, affecting 6.5 million men in the UK.

It generally starts with a little thinning of the hair, followed by wider hair loss, allowing more of the scalp to become visible.

For a few men, this process starts as early as the late teens. By the age of 60, most men have some degree of hair loss.

Some men aren’t troubled by this at all. Others, however, suffer great emotional distress associated with a lack of self-esteem and, in some cases, depression.

Useful links

NHS Choices – Hair Loss Treatments

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the UK, with over 40,000 new cases diagnosed every year.

Prostate cancer usually develops slowly, so there may be no signs you have it for many years.

Symptoms often only become apparent when your prostate is large enough to affect the urethra (the tube that carries urine from the bladder to the penis).

When this happens, you may notice things like an increased need to urinate, straining while urinating and a feeling your bladder has not fully emptied.

However, these signs do not mean you have prostate cancer. It is more likely they are caused by something else, such as benign prostatic hyperplasia (also known as BPH or prostate enlargement).

What is the prostate?

The prostate is a small gland in the pelvis found only in men. About the size of a satsuma, it is located between the penis and the bladder. It surrounds the urethra, the tube that carries urine from the bladder to the penis.

The main function of the prostate is to help in the production of semen. It produces a thick white fluid that is mixed with the sperm produced by the testicles, to create semen.

Although still rare compared to other cancers, testicular cancer is the most common cancer in men aged between 15-45 years with around 2,200-2,300 men being diagnosed each year. It is more common in Caucasian males.

If found at an early stage a cure rate of 98% is usually possible and even when testicular cancer has spread to other areas of the body cure can still be achieved. In fact according to recent research overall 96% of men diagnosed with any stage testicular cancer will be alive 10 years after treatment.

It is important to visit your GP as soon as you notice any lump or swelling on your testicle. Your GP will examine your testicles to help determine whether or not the lump is cancerous.

Symptoms

The earliest warning signs of testicular cancer usually include the following:

• A change in size or shape of a testicle.
• Swelling or thickening of a testicle.
• A firm, smooth, initially painless, slow-growing lump or hardness in a testicle.
• A feeling of testicular heaviness.

Useful links

• Orchid – Fighting Male Cancer
• Your Privates – Testicular Cancer Awareness
• NHS Choices – Testicular Cancer

The National Breast Screening Programme was introduced in 1988 as an early detection service for breast cancer. It states that all women who are aged between 50 – 70 years of age will be routinely invited for free breast screening every three years. The programme is very successful and currently saves around 1,400 lives per year.

Breast screening aims to find breast cancer at an early stage, often before there are any symptoms. To do this, an x-ray is taken of each breast (mammogram). Early detection may often mean simpler and more successful treatment. When women are invited for their mammogram depends on which GP they are registered with, not when their birthday is.

The screening office runs a rolling programme which invites women by area. The requirement is that all women will receive their first invitation before their 53rd birthday, but ideally when they are 50.  If you are under 50 and concerned about any aspect of breast care, please contact the surgery to make an appointment with your GP.

• Useful links: West London Breast Screening

Cervical screening, or smear test, is a method of detecting abnormal (pre-cancerous) cells in the cervix in order to prevent cervical cancer. The cervix is the entrance to the womb from the vagina. Cervical screening is recommended every three years for women aged 25 to 49 and every five years for women aged 50 to 64 or more frequently if smear results indicates abnormal changes.

Cervical screening is not a test for cancer; it is a test to check the health of the cells of the cervix. Most women’s test results show that everything is normal, but for 1 in 20 women the test will show some abnormal changes in the cells of the cervix.

Most of these changes will not lead to cervical cancer and the cells may go back to normal on their own. However, in some cases, the abnormal cells need to be treated to prevent them becoming cancerous.

Our nurses are qualified to carry out cervical screening and tests in the form of cervical smears. In order to have a cervical smear the patient must have received a letter requesting that they have a cervical smear and the appointment must please be made for when the patient is not menstruating.

These appointments typically take around 15 minutes. For any further information or to book an appointment, please call the surgery.

Useful links

• NHS Choices – Cervical Screening
• Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust

Our family planning clinics offer free, confidential advice and information about contraception and sexual health.

We provide a range of services including:

• Confidential advice about contraception
• The combined oral contraceptive pill
• The Progestogen-only pill
• Progestogen injections
• Limited supplies of free condoms
• Free emergency contraception
• Confidential advice about STIs
• Cervical screening
• Unplanned pregnancy advice
• Free pregnancy tests
• Pre-conception advice and fertility awareness information
• Fitting and checking of caps, diaphragms, and coils (intrauterine devices, or IUDs)

Please book an appointment (through reception or via our online services) with your GP to discuss any of the above in more detail.

Sexual Health Services are also provided at:

Caryl Thomas Clinic, Headstone Drive, Harrow HA1 4UQ (020) 8427 4484, full information can be found here.

For more information please visit the websites below:

Useful links

• NHS Choices – Planning a Pregnancy
• NHS Choices – The Facts about Contraception