Tarek El Moussa, host of HGTV’s ‘Flip or Flop,’ was diagnosed with thyroid and
testicular cancer at the age of 31. For years Tarek suffered from minor side effects that
went unnoticed (clearing the throat, swollen lymph nodes etc.), and even spoke to his
Doctor about his concerns. While the doctor reassured Tarek nothing was out of the
ordinary, he still had a feeling something wasn’t right.
One morning as the ‘Flip or Flop’ production team was reading through fan emails, they
came across one from a registered nurse in Texas. She noticed the bump on Tarek’s
neck and suspected that it was an enlarged thyroid and advised him to get it checked
out. The production team quickly forwarded the email to Tarek, thus validating his
concerns and giving him a reason to seek out a second opinion.
Tarek received an ultrasound and a biopsy and the results came back “a-typical.” Tarek
became a candidate for surgery and scheduled a 90-minute surgery to remove a portion
of the mass and determine if it was malignant. Four hours later, Tarek woke up to the
news that his malignant tumor was removed.
Tarek and Christina began combing through old medical records to make sure nothing else was
overlooked. Through their research, they discovered a physical that listed an “irregular testicular
exam.” Worried and unsure what it meant, Tarek called a meeting with his doctor to discuss
what they found. Immediately following the meeting with his thyroid doctor, Tarek ventured
across the street for a testicular ultrasound per the doctor’s urging. A short 30- minutes later, the
irregular exam was officially diagnosed as testicular cancer and Tarek was scheduling his surgery.
After the surgeries, Tarek utilized medications and hormones to continue the fight and get his
body back on track. For much of this time Tarek dealt with fatigue, emotional swings and physical
side effects he never anticipated. After adjusting his medications and enduring a long healing
process, Tarek is cancer free and his body in balance.
The past few years Tarek has been open in discussing his thyroid cancer and how it was discovered. It wasn’t until recently when
Tarek’s step-father was also diagnosed, that he began opening up about his struggles with testicular cancer. Now Tarek is advocating
for habitual and open discussions about health, specifically men’s health, to increase awareness and hopefully save lives. Tarek’s
advice: Having learned from experience, trust your body and if something doesn’t feel right, get it checked and checked again, until
you are comfortable that all questions have been answered.