Health for men: they pushed the visits to general practitioners

Two years ago, Dan Somers began to feel a series of strange and unexplained symptoms. He had severe chest pain, could not keep food or even water and continued to “connect the bile”.

Although he feels that something is wrong, Dan was reluctant to ask for medical help. “I am really stubborn when it comes to going to doctors,” the 43 -year -old BBC told BBC. “I didn’t want to be a burden.”

Dan’s pain continued to get worse, until it is “closely close to shouting on the pain of pain” and taking free time. It was the worst pain he ever knew, he said when thinking about.

But “honestly, I thought I could try to repair it,” recalls Dan.

It was his wife who finally managed to push Dan to see the doctor.

His general practitioner sent him directly to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with an infection of the gallbladder and spent a week to recover. He was told that he had been about to have a septicemia.

Dan’s story reflects those of other men who told the BBC that they have also rejected in search of medical treatment – often until their symptoms become unbearable or until a loved one pushes them to get help.

It is well known that men go less to doctors than women and data support it.

The NHS told the BBC that it does not publish demographic data on GP meetings. But according to the ONS Survey on health information From February, commanded by the NHS England, 45.8% of women, against only 33.5% of men had tried to contact their practice of the general practitioner or someone else in their household in the last 28 days.

Men were more likely to say that they were not registered in a dental office and that “rarely” also used a pharmacy.

They are also made up considerably less ambulatory meetings at the hospital That women, even when the meetings related to pregnancy are reduced.

Men are “less likely to attend routine appointments and more likely to delay the search for help until the symptoms interfere with daily function,” explains Paul Galdas, male health teacher at the University of York.

All affects the results for men’s health.

Experts say that there is a long list of reasons why men could refer to the search for medical aid, and new NHS survey data suggest that concerns about how they are perceived come into play.

In the survey, 48% of men agreed that they felt a certain degree of pressure to “harden” with regard to potential health problems, while a third party agreed that they felt about potential health problems for others to consider them weak. The survey heard nearly 1,000 men in England in November and December 2024.

Society associates masculinity with traits such as self -sufficiency, independence and not showing vulnerability, explains the social psychologist, Professor Brendan Gouldh of the University of Leeds Beckett. “Men are traditionally supposed to sort the things themselves”.

“It is worrying to see how many men still feel unable to talk about their health problems,” said Dr. Claire Fuller, NHS medical director for primary care. She notes that men can be reluctant to request medical support for mental health and changes in their bodies that may be signs of cancer.

“GPS is often the best way to access the help they need,” she adds.

Kevin McMullan says he learned by working for the charity of mental health of men manhealth that men want to solve their own problems. He said he had trouble with his mental health for years before he finally got help.

“You want to solve it yourself. Men are resolvers of inherent problems and how you feel a problem in the same way as having a flat tire is a problem,” said Kevin, 44, of Sedgefield in Durham County.

This is something that the health information survey also indicates. The data suggests that when people were unable to contact their general practitioner’s practice, men were much more likely than women to report “self -management” their condition, while women were more likely than men to go to a pharmacy or call 111.

“Many men believe that the search for help threatens their feeling of independence or competence,” said Professor Galdas.

Professor Galdas stresses that other factors dissuade men from going to doctors, such as meeting systems that do not correspond to their work models.

Services also count on the speech openly problems, he suggests, which does not reflect how men speak of health problems-and there is no fixed control targeting younger men.

Women, on the other hand, are “in a way forced to engage in the health system” because they could request meetings linked to menstruation, contraception, cervical projections or pregnancy, explains Seb Pillon, a general practitioner in Bolton.

And they also largely control the organization of their family health care. For example, around 90% of people who contacted the action for the sleep of children’s sleep charity to get help in the last six months were mothers, grandmothers and other women in children’s lives, said Alyson O’Brien, responsible.

Because women are more integrated into the health system – by seeking support for themselves and their children – they are more literate by health and are often the engine of their partners looking for medical aid, according to Professor Galdas.

And men just have a different attitude towards health care, says Dr. Pillon. He believes that many consider it only as a treatment – solving their problems – rather than preventive. Men are, for example, less likely To participate in the NHS intestine cancer screening program. As Professor Galdas says: “Men often seek help when symptoms disrupt their ability to work.”

For Jonathan ANSTEE, 54, of Surrey, it took his symptoms considerably to make an appointment of doctors, after months of stomach and blood ailments in his stool.

“Pain has worsened and blood has worsened,” said Jonathan. “But even when I went to the doctors, I was sitting in the waiting room thinking” that it is a huge waste of time “.

He received a diagnosis of intestine cancer in September 2022.

Throughout his life, he had generally avoided the meetings of the doctors, said Jonathan. And as a father, “you are used to worrying about your children and not yourself,” he said. Going to doctors for himself, not his children seemed “a little indulgent,” he said.

Last year, Jonathan was informed that his intestine cancer was the fourth stadium.

Having blood in your stools had felt too embarrassing to talk to your friends and family at the time. Jonathan’s advice to other men are: “There is absolutely no need to be embarrassed. The alternative could kill you – literally.”

In recent years, men’s support groups with cancer And mental health problems arose.

Matthew Wiltshire launched the male charitable cancer cancer body after receiving a diagnosis of intestine cancer in 2015. He died in 2023.

Matthew estimated that there was no space “where the men were talking about what it is to go through cancer”, explains his son, Oliver Wiltshire. “He also noticed how the emotional burden was transported by women around him.”

Thanks to cancer cancer, men can send an online message and attend sporting events together.

“Whether it is practical advice, honest cat or know that someone else gets it, this connection can make a big difference,” adds Oliver.

Experts say that if men’s attitudes towards health care gradually change for the best, more work has to be done.

Professor Galdas thinks that men are more committed if the services are redesigned to meet their needs – providing support proactively, having flexible access and focusing on practical measures to improve mental health problems.

“There is good proof of sensitive gender programs in mental health, care against cancer and health checks that show it in a coherent way,” he said.

For Dr. Pillon, this adds general health checks for men in their twenties to get them more used to access medical care.

They are already available by the NHS for people aged 40 to 74, but present them for younger men who may not go otherwise with doctors “would integrate the idea that you can come and use health services,” he said.

If you have been assigned by some of the problems raised in this story, information and support can be found in BBC action line.