Dr. Bradley Hennenfent is a graduate of Northwestern University, the University of Illinois Medical School, and the University of Illinois Affiliated Hospitals Emergency Medicine Residency Program.
He first became interested in the prostate when his Uncle Steve, who inspired him to attend medical school, died from his treatment for prostate cancer in 1984.
As the author researched the prostate, he became increasingly dismayed by the drastic operations that men were being subjected to without an understanding of their consequences. He discovered that the methods of diagnosis and treatment of prostatitis and BPH were controversial and that the research published by urologists is substantially flawed.
Dr. Hennenfent became a men’s health activist. He began doing original research. He founded the Internet newsgroups sci.med.prostate.cancer, sci.med.prostate.bph, and sci.med.prostate.prostatitis. He was also one of the founders of the Internet Prostate Problems Mailing List. Together with his father, Mike Hennenfent, he cofounded the nonprofit Prostatitis Foundation, which has helped hundreds of thousands of men.
Dr. Hennenfent has been published in the British Journal of Urology, the Digital Urology Journal, Emerging Infectious Diseases, Annals of Emergency Medicine, Consultant, EMERGINDEX, Techniques in Urology, and the Journal of Pelvic Surgery (pending).
Besides being a physician, Dr. Hennenfent is also an economist who believes that a well-designed health care system is more important to the health of a nation’s people than a physician’s skill and knowledge. He has traveled the world doing medical research and studying health-care delivery systems.
Dr. Hennenfent is a polished speaker who has delivered more than forty-five lectures at various hospitals. He owns a patent that enables less painful digital rectal examinations and prostatic massage.
Dr. Hennenfent has spent time educating congress on the need for prostatitis research and has helped secure millions of dollars in federal funding for prostatitis research.
Among the author’s heroes are Jessica Mitford, whose book, The American Way of Death, exposed the funeral industry’s exploitation of grieving relatives; Randy Shiltz, whose book, And the Band Played On, exposed the system's lack of response to the AIDS epidemic; and Hillary Johnson, author of Osler’s Web: Inside the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Epidemic, which exposed another shameful response of the medical system to a major health issue.
Dr. Hennenfent is a fan of Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics: The Manipulation of Public Opinion in America, the book by Michael Wheeler that first brought popular attention to how and why statistics are often misused; the hilarious How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff; the Honest Truth about Lying with Statistics by Cooper B. Holmes; and The Cartoon Guide to Statistics by Larry Gonick and Woollcott Smith are also high on the author’s list of favorites.
Dr. Hennenfent hopes to someday open a clinical research center for prostate diseases.
