A recent post on the PatientsLikeMe
blog got me thinking about why men are so much less likely than women to see a doctor for an annual physical exam or for preventive care. What’s going on that keeps these men away – particularly when men die at higher rates than women from the top 10 causes of death and live, on average, five fewer years than women, according to the Men's Health Network.
blog got me thinking about why men are so much less likely than women to see a doctor for an annual physical exam or for preventive care. What’s going on that keeps these men away – particularly when men die at higher rates than women from the top 10 causes of death and live, on average, five fewer years than women, according to the Men's Health Network. According to an online survey of more than 1,100 men conducted for the American Academy of Family Physicians in 2007 by Harris Interactive, many men only go to the doctor when they’re very sick. Even then, most said they waited at least a few days to see if they felt better before calling the doctor. Most had health insurance, had a doctor, and said they felt comfortable talking to their doctor.
In the UK, the problem became so serious a few years ago that the Men's Health Forum, an organization that works to raise awareness of men’s health issues, called for general practitioners to become more “male friendly.” The group’s research found that men in Britain went to the doctor 20% less often than women because they felt “put off by doctors.”
The group issued a statement that said, “The National Health Service must address men’s underuse of GPs as well as their underuse of pharmacies, smoking cessation, weight management services, and health trainers and look for ways to develop a gender-sensitive approach to service provision.”
More recently, a survey of 519 men conducted by Esquire magazine in January of 2011 found that about half of American men ages 18-50 didn’t have a primary care physician, and a third hadn’t had a checkup in more than a year. More than 40% of men in their 40s had never had their cholesterol checked, and 70% had never had a prostate exam.
“It’s a stereotype about men that they don’t like to go to the doctor, that they’d rather just go when there’s a problem,” Ryan D’Agostino of Esquire told USA Today. “We had hoped that it wasn’t this true.”
What can be done to encourage men to see their doctors on a regular basis and prevent the toll that undetected disease can take – both in terms of lives foreshortened and healthcare resources expended? Do healthcare providers need to be more “male friendly,” as some in the UK have suggested?
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2 comments:
We men avoid doctor's offices primarily because they're full of women! And nosy chattering women at that. We have a delicate problem we do not feel comfortable discussing with females, particularly our private parts, yet we're asked to "describe where it hurts" to women receptionists and technicians. There are no doctor's offices with male receptionists or male nurses then we're more comfortable staying home and waiting for the problem to fix itself. Men suffer embarrassment just as women do and it's unfair to subject us to humilitation and undignified behaviour. That's why we don't visit doctors...because there are none that cater to us!
I hope you find the right doctor one day.
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