Call for action on UK men’s health as 133,000 die early every year

17 comments

1. My dad died at 58 because GPs couldn’t be arsed to test him.
   He died of cancer. Discovered so late (after 4 GP visits over months) that he couldn’t even get chemo at that stage.

   GPS just don’t give a flying fuck.

2. One thing I’ve learnt is that nobody actually gives a flying fuck about men – be it physical or mental health.

3. If men’s mental health was talked about as much as other illnesses like say, cancer, you’ll never hear the end of it.

4. The problems run too deep in this country for this kind of activism to actually help people.

5. Mental health help in general in this country is awful. Our mental health as a country is really poor.

6. > 64% – wait more than a week before visiting a doctor with symptoms, while **48% believe it is normal practice to avoid health check-ups**. Less than 40% take up the offer of an NHS health check for which they are eligible.

7. The fixes for this are obvious
   – pay people properly
   – improve quality of life so going to work has an actual value proposition
   – sort the NHS out to a point where GPs aren’t so overworked that they’re not doing their job properly
   – stop demonizing masculinity, so that men don’t become desperate and run to morons like Andrew Tate that prey on them
   – fix the divorce system so that men get a fair shake and their life isn’t over when their marriage is
   – get rid of absurd shows like love island which encourage men AND women that theres only one way to be accepted in society and it’s their way.

8. Stigmatisation in the workplace applies to all re time off for sickness especially older employees Chance to employ younger cheaper staff part time makes people not visit docs too.Also applies to all If u are depressed it affects your right to drive eg even taking sertraline for a short period its questioned.Also illness affects your insurance too.Atitudes re health if our nation need to change

9. It is a complex relationship between stubbornness, cultural expectation to not be weak, lack of awareness and a service that has been striped down so bad that it no longer works.

10. We live in a society where men are portrayed as being babies and overly dramatic when we get sick.

11. It’s not just men’s health thats an issue. Men’s education is now slipping behind womens. And people wonder why people like andrew tate grew in popularity when young men feel like they’re ignored. Equality for all

12. Similar to how Doctors blame every women’s issue on weight. I have found every time I have gone to the doctor as a man in my mid thirties they always jump to cut down how much alcohol you’re drinking.
    I barely drink just on the odd social occasion.
    Maybe if they weren’t overwhelmed in the NHS they could take the time to do their job properly.

13. I visited A&E with high BP, high heartbeat, fatigue, dizziness, and light-headedness. They ran a blood test, and EKG which came back normal, and they said that’s all they could do.

14. Does anyone have a link to the actual report? I looked on the Movember website but couldn’t find it in their publications section.

15. I’m 34 next month. 2019 i suddenly started feeling ‘off’ in my self and out of nowhere weeks later took a dizzy spell while driving (thankfully had just stopped at the lights). Since then I had eye floaters I never had before, further dizzy spells, brain fog spells, severe migraines, light sensitivity and other similar issues for years.

    Naturally I ent to my gp/opticians to be told Inwas fine. Knowing I wasn’t, I kept going because this never happened before and visions always been perfect etc. Eventually had a referall for a hospital appointment (bloods, eyes checked, mri etc) that also said generally I was fine but that there was something that looked like a small cyst on the brain but ‘nothing to be concerned of’.

    At that stage, symptoms remained but what else could I do? A few years of ‘dealing with it’ later. Migraines did disappear but now in the last two years instead have heavy bouts of memory loss (can’t remember what people told me hours ago/days before, what happened in the tv episode i just watched, to the point its more recently affecting relationship and work related tasks, plus expectedly stressing me out). That and an appearance of blurred vision in my right eye.

    So for the last two years, again knowing something has changed, i’ve persisted. Again being told i’m fine via GP and optician (even paying for the extra tests). A year ago, back to the optician as general vision now seemed worse and the right eye more so. Now given a slight prescription to ‘stop eye strain’ and apparently dry eyes. Accepted as there was some relief but a clear point here that the prescription did nothing to get rid of any blur in the right eye.

    Now to the last few months at which point i tried my GP again as forgetfulness was unbearable for a few weeks and my right eye vision is significantly worse. Bloods taken and had to do a (in my opinion stupid) ‘early signs dementia’ test. Which was literally ‘repeat these words after me’ type of stuff. Totally out of context for what i’m suffering in my opinion. I then heard nothing back. So called to be told by the receptionist, ‘if you haven’t heard, your bloods must have been fine’. Which leaves me in a place of ‘so what fucking next?’, no follow up or anything from the GP. Just literally left.

    Add to that, decided to try a different optician and low and behold, she actually spotted something. Something of concern enough to refer me urgently to the hospital eye dept. Turns out the blurring is likely being caused by scar tissue in my eye (which apparently has likely been due to a ‘viral infection’ left untreated) that is seemingly layers deep as well as the external of my eye, plus some actively visible blood vessels that have made their way into the iris.

    So now being treated for that. Which is good but at this point may only be a preventative to stop vision getting worse, while the other damage may now be irreparable.

    Which collectively just gives me the fear because i’ve known things haven’t been right for so so long and scared they may get worse and leaving me questioning, is this all related to the cyst on the brain. Has it got worse? Who knows, but the GP’s etc don’t seem to give a flying fuck.

    Anyway, not expecting anyone to read all this and certainly not expecting any sympathy but as a man. It’s no surprise at all so many are suffering, because it’s so damn hard to get seen and when you do, you just get fobbed off, even if you know something is wrong and then by the time you convince them to check again or see someone else who looks at it differently, it’s too late and you’ve been through all the stresses of the motions and now need to shift your worry to the fact you’re now living with things that could have been treated ages ago and hoping they don’t get worse.

    As i say, 34, can barely remember a thing and scared shitless i’ll be totally blind (at least in one eye) before i’m 40, when i’ve been asking asking asking for literally 5 years. I’m probably one of the lucky ones too, not surprised there’s people with more fatal stuff losing lives because they can’t even do the basics for men well.

16. Unequal retirement age worldwide on top of that and shorter life expectancy and men get to live the fewest amount of years without work.

17. The overworked, unpaid and under appreciated are dying at an increasingly shocking rate.

    Shocking…