They'd rather go shopping with their partner or clean the bathroom than head to the doctor's office. Why are men afraid of doctors like the "devil of the cross"?
If something hurts, or if we feel that something is different than usual with our body, the practice says that we should go to a doctor. We women usually do. Not so men. There have already been a number of surveys that suggest that the male population avoids doctors in a big way. For example, a Cleveland Clinic survey showed that 40% of men will only commit to visiting a doctor's office if they fear they have a really serious health problem. In the same survey, 19% of men admitted that they only see a doctor because their partner stops forcing them to. And then , according to 2019 data, a full 77% of men who are married or partnered would rather go shopping with their spouse, and 72% of men would rather clean the bathroom and mow the lawn than go to the doctor. But why do men fear medical care so much? Or is their reluctance to go to the doctor's office/hospital due to something other than fear?
Thousands of reasons...
Even the causes of men's resistance to taking care of their own health have been extensively charted. For example, an online survey conducted by Orlando Health in 2016 suggested that avoiding the doctor is an absolutely common practice among men aged 35-54 - only 43% of those surveyed said they do so by going for regular medical check-ups. The rest had their own reasons for not going to the doctor. Most often (in 22% of cases), according to the survey, men do not go to the doctor because they simply feel too busy to be able to afford to spend a large amount of time in the waiting room, in the surgery, or even with other examinations. However, another 21% of men do not seek out a doctor simply because they are afraid of what they might find out. In addition, men are afraid (in 18% of cases) of examinations, specifically those that might be unpleasant - e.g. prostate exams or colonoscopies (bowel examinations). A further 8% of men were worried about personal questions and 7% expressed concern about having to consider...
Of course, the willingness to go to the doctor increases with age - but not because men are getting wiser, but simply because diseases are starting to accumulate and become more serious. Even then, however, seeking out a specialist is the last resort for many men - with 65% of the sample in the aforementioned study saying they avoid seeing a doctor while they can. To make matters worse, even those men who do eventually go to the doctor keep a lot of information from him - for fear that they might otherwise learn some scary diagnosis. "Men tend to be very stubborn about a lot of things, with health care usually being the first priority," thinks Dr. Eric Klein, chairman of the Glickman Urological & Kidney Institute.
Zdroj: Giphy
And there's that toxic masculinity again...
But alongside this, surveys have also pointed to another factor that may be behind men's reluctance to seek medical help when needed. In fact, in a Cleveland Clinic questionnaire, 41% of men surveyed said they were told as children that men don't complain about their health problems. Indeed, this is confirmed by GP Dr Amy Revene, who says that men's reluctance to see a doctor regularly stems from their psychological problems. "Not only do men fear diagnosis, but they also have trouble letting go of their macho attitudes," she said bluntly. It is therefore toxic masculinity (and the related desire to hide or deny one's own vulnerability) that is most to blame for the current situation. Men are putting into practice the usual imperatives that have been instilled in them since childhood - from the classic "boys don't cry" to the common downplaying of various types of injuries. According to experts, this actually promotes the so-called superhero syndrome in men, which is impossible to live up to in everyday life.
And the result?
Regardless of the exact reasons men have for not visiting the doctor regularly, the truth is that, statistically speaking, men live to a younger age than women (and also smoke and drink alcohol more often than women). While in the past, researchers attributed men's earlier demise to a fairly broad combination of factors - ranging from a tendency to take more risks to lower social connectedness to more dangerous jobs - today, a widely discussed reason for this is precisely because men not only neglect prevention, but also often fail to address the health problems that arise. Many problems can be solved quite easily, at least if they are diagnosed in time. So men should throw away their fears and shame (and macho masculinity) and start going for preventive check-ups for their own sake. Regularly.
