Abstract:
The attention men‘s health is receiving recently, specifically, prostate cancer,
can be largely attributed to the World Health Organisation‘s efforts to create
awareness and invest in research on prostate diseases. Of all the prostate
diseases, prostate cancer seemed to have the highest incidence rate and these
patients are plagued with several issues from the moment of diagnosis.
Meanwhile, a myriad of studies on prostate cancer have largely focused on
experiences of the spouses of the men with prostate cancer and creating
awareness of the disease, with little or no attention on the experiences of men
living with prostate cancer in Ghana. This research therefore explored the
biopsychosocial experiences of men living with prostate cancer using the
phenomenological research design. Nine men were conveniently sampled and
interviewed face to face and on phone at the 37 Military Hospital. The
researcher used a semi-structured interview guide for data collection and the
data were analysed using the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA).
The results of this study showed that men living with prostate cancer are
bedevilled with biological and social problems which affects their
psychological wellbeing. It was found that pain and erectile dysfunction were
biological problems patients contend with and lack of professional
psychotherapy was a social problem and they also experienced psychological
reactions such as fear, worry, anxiety, shock and depression. Additionally, it
was found that despite all these experiences, the respondents seemed to have
good social support from their nuclear family which aid their management of
the disease. It was recommended that professional psychotherapy be made
available to mitigate the psychological problems they encounter
