Bradley Hennenfent, MD, 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 prostate cancer treatment in 1984.
As Dr. Hennenfent 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 prostate cancer were controversial, and that the research published by urologists is substantially flawed.
Dr. Hennenfent published the book, SURVIVIVNG PROSTATE CANCER WITHOUT SURGERY, which became an immediate bestseller for Biblio Distribution, and continues to sell steadily today.
Dr. Hennenfent became a men’s health activist. He began doing original research. He founded the Internet newsgroups [login to view URL].prostate.cancer, [login to view URL].prostate.bph, and [login to view URL].prostate.prostatitis. He was also one of the original founders of the Internet Prostate Problems Mailing List. Together with his father, Mike Hennenfent, he co-founded the nonprofit Prostatitis Foundation ([login to view URL]), where almost a million men per year visit for help.
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. He also authored a monograph entitled the Prostatitis Syndromes, donating all proceeds to the non-profit Prostatitis Foundation.
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 any single physician’s skill and knowledge. He has traveled the world doing medical research and studying health-care delivery systems.
Dr. Hennenfent 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 financial 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; and The Honest Truth about Lying with Statistics by Cooper B. Holmes.
Dr. Hennenfent lives in Illinois where he writes, does medical research, and contributes to the non-profit Prostatitis Foundation. He hopes to open a clinical research center for prostate diseases and to organize a biomedical company to do research.
