A father said he was initially scared to tell his children of his breast cancer diagnosis after discovering a lump in the shower.
Former police officer Dave, 64, was on holiday in Florida when he found a lump on his chest. However, he didn't tell his family about his discovery as 'life seemed normal'.
He said: "I was on holiday in Florida, celebrating my birthday, when I found a lump on my chest in the shower. It wasn’t painful and I didn’t tell anyone about it because life just seemed normal.
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"I wasn't aware that men should check for breast cancer, but I know that if your body changes, you shouldn’t leave it so I went to see my GP as soon as I got home and they referred me to see a specialist consultant.
"Despite being told it was probably just a fatty deposit, I had an ultrasound and biopsy. One week later I was diagnosed with breast cancer. The tumour was the size of a golf ball.
"Of course, when I was first diagnosed I was scared and it was tough to tell my children. I had a mastectomy, treatment and almost seven years later I am in good health and still receiving a course of drugs that can reduce the rate of cancer returning.
"My mother died from ovarian cancer when she was 68-years-old, and I knew there was a link between ovarian and breast cancer, but generally little is known about male breast cancer.
"People will say 'I didn't realise men could get that and to be honest, I didn't think I would ever get it.
New research has now found that infertility causes breast cancer in men. It doubles the risk of the disease compared to peers with higher sperm counts.
The finding is based on around 2,000 newly diagnosed British men over a 12-year period. Dave said: "It's really interesting that if you're affected by fertility issues, you could be more likely to be affected by breast cancer.
"I'm lucky that I haven't been impacted by fertility problems, but it's important scientists build on Breast Cancer Now's research as it could help to find out what causes some male breast cancers and one day even lead to developing new treatments."
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. In the UK, around 55,500 new cases are diagnosed every year. But for men, it does not even feature among the top 20. Only a few hundred cases are recorded annually.
It has been largely overlooked - with only one previous study suggesting a possible link with being able to have children. Lead author Dr Michael Jones, of The Institute of Cancer Research, London, said: "These are important findings linking infertility to breast cancer in men.
"Our study suggests that infertile men may be twice as likely as those without fertility issues to develop breast cancer.
"The reasons behind this association are unclear, and there is a need to investigate the fundamental role of male fertility hormones on the risk of breast cancer in men.
"We hope this could lead to insights into the underlying causes of male, and possibly even female, breast cancer.
"Breast cancer is often thought of as something that only affects women, but men can also be diagnosed with the disease.
"Compared with previous studies our study of male breast cancer is large. It was carried out nationwide across England and Wales and was set in motion more than 15 years ago.
"Because of how rare male breast cancer is, it took us over 12 years to identify and interview the nearly 2,000 men with breast cancer who were part of this study."
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