The two-minute check

This one isn't about fertility. It's two minutes a month that catches the most curable cancer there is, and most men have never been shown how.

Testicular cancer is the most common cancer in men aged roughly 15 to 40, and when it's caught early the cure rate is among the highest of any cancer. The men who catch it early are almost always the ones who noticed a change themselves. That's the entire case for this habit.

How to do it

Once a month, during or after a warm shower - warmth relaxes everything and makes the exam easier and more accurate.

• Check one side at a time. Roll the testicle gently between your thumb and first two fingers.
• Feel the surface. It should be smooth and firm, like a hard-boiled egg without the shell.
• Find the epididymis - the soft, ropey tube running along the back of each testicle. That's normal anatomy, not a lump. Most first-time panics are the epididymis.
• Compare month to month, not side to side against some imagined standard. You're looking for change.

What's normal

One testicle hanging lower than the other. One being slightly larger. Mild differences that have always been there. Bodies are asymmetric; yours is not the exception.

What's worth acting on

• A hard lump or nodule on the testicle itself, usually painless
• A change in size or firmness of one testicle
• A dull ache or heaviness in the scrotum or lower belly that doesn't settle
• Sudden swelling

A painless lump is the classic presentation - don't wait for it to hurt, because it usually won't.

If you find something

Book a doctor's appointment this week. Not someday - this week. Say the words "I found a lump on my testicle" and you will be seen quickly; every health system takes that sentence seriously. Most lumps turn out to be cysts, varicoceles or the epididymis doing its job. But the ones that aren't are exactly the ones where a week matters.

Nobody else is going to do this check for you. Two minutes, once a month, after a shower. That's the whole job.