March is Stricture Awareness Month (SAM), when CURE hopes to educate healthcare professionals and the public in order to improve early recognition and diagnosis of urethral strictures to prevent unnecessary suffering.
Despite affecting at least one in every 200 men, there is minimal awareness, no dedicated funding, and no structured guidance for GPs.
More than 12,000 men in the UK require medical intervention for strictures each year, yet thousands of cases could be going unreported or misattributed to other conditions.
CURE founder Professor Daniela Andrich, Consultant Reconstructive Urological Surgeon and Honorary Associate Professor at University College London (UCL), said: „Urethral strictures need to be taken far more seriously by healthcare professionals. Too many men suffer in silence, unaware that their symptoms are caused by a treatable condition. Yet GPs often lack the training to recognise strictures, leading to delays in diagnosis and repeated hospital visits.
„This condition can affect men of any age and the symptoms can cause tremendous embarrassment. The NHS must do more to ensure GPs and frontline healthcare providers have the knowledge to recognise warning signs early – especially in men at higher risk, such as those who have undergone prostate cancer treatments.“