Meeting men where they are: A urologist's case for community outreach

Every September during Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, I ask myself the same question: Are we reaching the men who need this information most, or only the ones who already walk through our doors? Approximately 1 in 8 men will receive a diagnosis of prostate cancer, and this year alone, an estimated 333,830 new cases will be diagnosed in the US.¹ For Black men, the numbers are more sobering: 1 in 6 will be diagnosed, incidence runs 67% higher, and mortality is nearly double that of White men.² Those gaps do not close in the examination room. They close in the community.

Trust travels through familiar rooms

I have learned that a pamphlet in a waiting room rarely changes behavior. A conversation at a barbershop, a men's ministry breakfast, or a union hall does. Pastors, coaches, and barbers have already earned the trust that many of us in medicine are still working to build, especially in communities with a long, justified history of skepticism toward the health care system. When we show up as guests in those spaces, the conversation changes. I have given short talks after Sunday service and sat in on men's group meetings simply to answer questions honestly: What does an elevated prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level actually mean? Does a biopsy hurt? What does treatment do to intimacy and continence? Those are the questions men are actually asking each other in private. Our job is to answer them in public. Perhaps even more impactful is telling the men who show up to those meetings that by spreading the word in their community, they can save lives.

Screenings belong in the neighborhood, not just the clinic

Free or low-cost community PSA screenings remove the 2 biggest barriers I hear about most: cost and access.³ When we bring a screening event to a church parking lot or a community center, we also remove a third, quieter barrier: fear of an unfamiliar clinical setting. Pairing a screening with education onsite, delivered by a urologist willing to explain results in plain language, does more in one Saturday morning than months of mailed reminders. I would encourage colleagues to reach out to local faith organizations, fraternities, and employers this month to ask a simple question: Can we bring a screening to you?

Partnering with organizations built for this

Our practice supports ZERO Prostate Cancer, and I'd encourage others to get involved. ZERO funds community screenings, education, and local grant programs aimed at closing the disparities I mentioned, including its Black Men's Film Series and community grant initiatives, and has set a goal of increasing screening in high-risk pilot communities by 20% by 2030. Their annual Run/Walk series each fall is an easy, visible way for a practice to give back to our community. Getting involved does not require a large budget. It requires showing up, consistently, in partnership with people already doing this work well.

Helping primary care catch up to the guidelines

Outreach to patients only works if the referral pipeline behind it is working too, and that starts with primary care. The 2012 USPSTF (US Preventive Services Task Force) recommendation against PSA screening was associated with a drop in screening rates,⁴ and even after the 2018 revision to a Grade C recommendation for men aged 55 to 69 years, calling for individualized, shared decision-making, I still see confusion in the medical community. The nuance matters most for our highest-risk patients. The American Cancer Society recommends that conversations about screening start at 45 for Black men and men with a first-degree relative diagnosed before 65, and at 40 for men with more than one such relative.³ A blanket “wait until 55” approach misses exactly the men who can least afford to wait. I try to engage my referring primary care physicians (PCPs), not to lecture, but to walk through what shared decision-making looks like for a 47-year-old Black patient vs an average-risk 60-year-old. This is well received and, furthermore, helps to support referral patterns.

An invitation, not a mandate

None of this requires grand gestures. It requires urologists willing to leave the clinic, sit in a folding chair in a church basement, and answer the question a man was too nervous to ask his doctor. Prostate Cancer Awareness Month is a good prompt, but the outreach has to outlast September. I would ask every colleague reading this to pick one community space this year—a barbershop, a men's group, a PCP's lunch hour—and show up in it.

REFERENCES

1. Key statistics for prostate cancer. American Cancer Society. Updated January 13, 2026. Accessed August 11, 2026. https://tinyurl.com/w8pfvtsk

2. Black men and prostate cancer. American Cancer Society. November 5, 2025. Accessed August 11, 2026. https://tinyurl.com/2wj2ks6y

3. American Cancer Society recommendations for prostate cancer early detection. American Cancer Society. Updated November 22, 2023. https://tinyurl.com/2x3hbc86

4. Jemal A, Fedewa SA, Ma J, et al. Prostate cancer incidence and PSA testing patterns in relation to USPSTF screening recommendations. JAMA. 2015;314(19):2054-2061. doi:10.1001/jama.2015.14905