June 9, 2003 – As men have been conditioned not to complain, they too frequently ignore minor ailments that could be indicative of more serious problems. As a result, they are often more banged up when they finally decide to see a doctor, say various experts.
It was during National Men’s Health Week, created in 1994 by the US Congress, that this cry of alarm was raised. This event is repeated internationally for the first time this year.
The director of the International Society for Men’s Health, Professor Siegfried Meryn, recalled that the life expectancy of men remains lower than that of women (in Canada, it was 75.8 years for men and 81 , 4 years for women in 1997) and that the incidence of several male cancers is on the rise.
In addition to a society in which men do not feel the right to be sick, Professor Meryn questioned the professional approach to men’s health. Just as a doctor would not approach an elderly patient the same way he would approach a child, he says, the doctor must learn to discuss health with his male patients.
For her part, to women who are concerned about the health of the men in their lives, Dr. David Gremillion, who heads the Men’s Health Network in the United States, recommends not pushing anything but taking an approach. delicate and subtle which will make the man realize that it is permissible to go to see his doctor.
In addition to well-publicized problems like prostate cancer and cardiovascular disease, a visit to the doctor could detect other diseases less known to men.
Breast cancer, for example, affected 1,600 men in the United States in 2002. At the time of diagnosis, male patients were generally older than female patients, and frequently had more advanced cancer. Men are also at greater risk than women of developing ocular melanoma, a form of skin cancer that appears on the white of the eye.
Jean-Benoit Legault – PasseportSanté.net
According to Reuters, CBSNews.com and WebMD; June 9, 2003.
