Business of LifeWhat is it with men and doctors. Why are so many men in their fifties not going to doctors? Read There are fates worse than death for sobering examples of shattered families because the men didn't go to doctors.
Reading those stories reminded me of a piece called "The Do or Die Decade" all about men in their fifties link
If men can get through their fifties, they have a chance of living as long as women. But since so many refuse to go to doctors, diseases are not caught early, preventive care is not taken and chances to change to a smarter, healthier way of living are lost.
Women live 6 years longer. Their chance of getting cancer is 1 in 3; for men it's one in 2. Men have twice the rate of liver cancer. Most heart attacks happen to women over 75. Most men are dead by then.
Usually men go to health service because of 1) an accident, an act of violence or a health crisis or 2) a loved one made them go.
"Aside from prison, there's probably no more threatening place for a man to be then naked in an exam room" say urologist Ken Goldberg of Dallas, founder of the first male health center in the country. "They think someone is going to find a chink in their armor."
This male frame of mind can be considered as 'depressive disorder-male type' according to William Pollack, director of the Centers for Men and Young Men at McLean Hospital in Boston.
This issue reverberates with me. A man I loved had a little raised blueberry like mole on his arm. You should have it checked I said. It's nothing he said. I would bring it up frequently when I saw him. I will, I will he said after my daughter's wedding. Seven months later, he finally did get it checked. It was malignant melanoma stage 4. Despite the best of care from that point on, Jacques died because it had already progressed too far. Would it have been different seven months earlier. I think so.
How can we get the men we love and the ones we only like to get periodic checkups? Suggestions?