Men’s Health Care

We have finally come to the realization that men and women are different. Imagine that! We all start out the same—sex differences do not appear until about the sixth week of gestation. Until then, all embryos are the same………female. Don’t pass out. If the embryo is going to be a male, that’s when the changes begin. If it’s going to be female, they don’t. The embryo just keeps developing. All humans start out female. So why is conventional medicine based, even today, largely on studies of male subjects? That’s a rhetorical question. You’re lucky that it has because much of the statistics and research apply to you. They don’t mean much, though if you ignore them.

Educate yourself. There is a wealth of information on the internet about men’s health and the more you read, the more you learn, the more you know, the better you’ll take care of yourself. Just in case you need reminding—the women in your life are not responsible for your health or your healthcare.

So, if so much research has gone into the study of men, why is it that men tend to die younger than women? Part of the answer lies in the invincibility (or the belief in it) of youth. Sometimes men take risks they really shouldn’t just to ‘prove’ … something or other. There is also a cultural bias, largely created by movie heroes, that to seek help for discomfort or pain is to be weak. There is a special lingo attached to that bias that also comes from the movies; ‘toughing it out’, ‘biting the bullet’, etc. I’m just guessing here but you’re probably not a movie hero. I’ll bet you have a job and like to relax with a beer or martini, or whatever. You like cheeseburgers or filet mignon, and you don’t play as much basketball or golf or whatever, as your waistline would like. And you don’t want to be bothered about taking care of your health. But if more men paid better attention to their health, I’ll bet the difference in death rates would narrow considerably.

The first thing you need to do is schedule a checkup if it’s more than a couple of years since you had one. Younger men need checkups less frequently than older men, but they should still get them just the same. It’s a good thing to know you’re in good shape; it’s an even better thing to have a condition caught early on by somebody who knows what they’re looking at. And before you go for that checkup, make a list of anything that occurs to you to ask. If you don’t, something could get missed—doctors are not clairvoyant and they’re just as busy as the rest of us and may need to have their attention called to something.

The two major concerns men have about their health are impotence and prostate cancer. If you have a problem with impotence, consider your age and general state of health. Are you overweight? Sedentary? Mal-nourished? Over-stressed? If you don’t want to see a doctor about your problem, at least check out all the info on the net and make some lifestyle changes. If that doesn’t help, ummm, ‘bite the bullet’ and go see your regular physician and ask about it. Your regular physician ought to know whether to send you to a urologist, an endocrinologist, or a shrink.

A more serious issue is prostate cancer. So you don’t want somebody poking you in certain places. Join the club. Being professionally probed is not usually fun and many guys are embarrassed about it. If that’s what’s keeping you from addressing a problem you could literally die from embarrassment. Prostate cancer may or may not be a big deal. It tends to be slow-growing and if you’re nearing the expiration of your ticket anyway, something else is liable to finally do you in. But if you’re youngish, for heaven’s sake do something about it! Maybe Frank Zappa would still be making waves if he’d been diagnosed earlier. He was only 52 when he died. Think about it.

One thing men tend not to be concerned about enough is STD’s, the most horrific one being, of course, HIV/AIDS. Oh yes, and pregnancy. I realize that sex is fashionably looked upon as some kind of leisure sport these days, but there can be a very high price to pay for casual encounters, for all concerned. I hope, for your own sake, and the sake of anyone you get ‘involved’ with, that you (and they) behave responsibly.

So, in a nutshell: your health is your responsibility. There is so much good information readily available that ignorance is simply not an excuse anymore. Get a checkup on a regular basis. Make a list before you see your doctor. Remember to take the list with you. Ask all the questions on the list. Follow instructions. Eat your vegetables. Pick up after yourself. Breathe deeply. Stand up straight. Love somebody. Live like you mean it. Enjoy.

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