Men die on average seven years earlier than women – are they dying of embarrassment?

A quick glance around the average GP’s waiting room should be enough to tell you that men are a tad reticent when it comes to addressing health issues. Even if all doctors’ surgeries installed Sky Sports and a selection of draught lagers you would still have to drag most men kicking and screaming for a health check there, with men being 20% less likely to consult a doctor than their female counterparts.

This unwillingness to get the once-over can mean that men miss out on early diagnosis of serious illnesses, only acting once they are unable to work or pain becomes too severe to administer the usual bloke treatment of ‘ignore it and it will go away’. GP Dr Ayan Panja (www.drayan.co.uk) acknowledges that it can be difficult to get men to address health issues. ‘Telling them about someone else who went to the doctor and feels better because they got help and lost weight or stopped smoking is one way to motivate men,’ he says.Health charity Men’s Health Forum (www.menshealthforum.org.uk) highlights how important that appointment can be, reporting that men are 60% more likely to develop cancer and 70% more likely to die from it, with prostate cancer and testicular cancer being two that specifically impact on males. Men also have greater problems with circulatory diseases and make up 75% of the number of UK suicides every year.

Depression and suicide
The statistics on male suicide are often linked with a macho unwillingness to seek help and the refusal to admit to having a problem that could be seen as an emotional one. There are obvious links with untreated mental health issues as well, with depression being a major contributor to suicidal thoughts and factors such as 85% of homeless on the streets being men. Suicide is the second most common way for males between the ages of 15 and 34 to die, with only road traffic accidents outweighing the 900+ that die at their own hand each year. 

The stigma around depression has decreased recently, with campaigners on mental health issues keen to highlight that it can affect any of us at any stage of our lives. Services such as the Samaritans (0845 790 9090) can help those feeling desperate or suicidal, but GPs also offer help and advice, so you should point any man in your life who is feeling low or lacking joy in this direction first.

Weight and obesity
Obesity is increasingly a major concern for both sexes with 24% of men and women in the UK now obese. However, the problem is growing faster in men, and more men are currently overweight than women. Indeed, 41% of men are spilling over their waistbands, as compared with 32% of women. Heart disease and cancer are both linked to being overweight, as is diabetes, which is a major killer in men.

Diets, body mass index (BMI) and the obesity crisis are never far from the news. But recent campaigns on the issue have been more successful with women than men, with adverts for slimming clubs and lighter meals aimed squarely at the female market, largely as the advertisers know that salads and weigh-ins don’t go down well with men. A present of some flashy running shorts and a new pair of trainers may be a handy hint for your man to hit the gym, but getting him to eat more fruit and veg and going for romantic walks are good starting points.

Alcohol consumption
Those feeling vulnerable often turn to alcohol, but this can simply compound any feelings of depression or worthlessness, as well as causing physical damage. Over one-third of men drink more than the government’s guideline amount of three to four units maximum per day and there is no telling when the impact from this abuse will start to hit. Drinking large amounts is dangerous for both sexes, with heart problems, liver damage and cancer being related risks. But men, who are more likely to binge drink than women, also face problems such as impotence, obesity (that beer belly comes from the 200-plus calories in a pint, with a binge often doubling your advised calorie intake) and violence. One-in-four male hospital admissions is alcohol-related, with a quarter of murders and half of traffic deaths being attributed to drink.

Counting up the units over a week is one way for men to check and see if they have a problem, but most will have some inkling. If the man in your life is drinking every day it is a sign that he could be on his way to having a problem; regular blackouts, daily hangovers and the inability to start the day without a drink are signs that he already has one. His GP can help, though you or he can also contact Drinkline on 0800 917 8282, or  try www.alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk ‘Not seeking help for depression or alcohol dependence is delaying the inevitable which is feeling worse and worse until a crisis point is reached. There is help out there and most things are treatable, but the longer symptoms are ignored, the more likely it is that it’ll be too late to do anything about it,’ says Dr Panja.

Erectile dysfunction
More sensitive still is the issue of erectile dysfunction, with even the slightest potency problem leading men to question their virility and right to call themselves a man. The truth is that one-off incidents are rarely anything to worry about and nearly all men will suffer this problem at some point. Worrying about it is only likely to compound the problem, though rational thought can, naturally, go out the window when a guy is fretting over his ability to have sex again and the ridicule he may face if his mates were to find out.

Drink and stress are often the cause of erectile problems, so trying to get him to relax more and suggesting a week on the orange juice is a start. But if there is an ongoing condition you should encourage him to seek help from an expert rather than simply suggest he buys some Viagra from that bloke down the pub. Erectile dysfunction could be a sign of prostate or heart problems and can be caused by underlying conditions such as diabetes. A GP check-up is therefore advised.

All in the head?
A lot of bowls of soup, cups of Lemsip and Sopranos DVD box sets have been consumed in the name of ‘man-flu’, a condition universally met with sardonic smiles from women. Yet recent research has found that men may actually suffer more from certain illnesses, as a result of an evolutionary tic. A team at Cambridge University used a mathematical model to explore why men are more susceptible to certain infections and suffer with more symptoms.

‘The basic assumption we made was that you have to trade off other aspects of your biology to divide your resources between different vital functions, such as immunity or reproduction,’ says Dr Olivier Restif, who led the research. ‘If you are devoting a lot of resources to producing proteins and cells in the immune system, you may be limiting your resources for reproduction.’ In particular, testosterone has been shown to interfere with the immune response, meaning that men with high testosterone levels could be at greater risk of infection.

Pictures: getty images