This week is International Men’s Health Week and health professionals from around the country are encouraging men to look after their health and visit their GP.
This year’s theme, ‘Time Waits for No-One’, represents the five barriers that prevent men from seeking information and support for their health.
These barriers are: hoping it’s not an issue; taking too long to do something about your health; worried that asking for help is thought to be weak; having trouble talking about your health; and not sure what information to trust.
Shepparton Lister House Medical Centre GP Chik Sing Chua said that when it came down to it, preventative treatment and early intervention was best practice.
“In 2019, the leading cause of death for men was heart disease, lung cancer and dementia,” Dr Chua said.
“Checking for prostate cancer, bowel cancer and diabetes in men are also as equally important.
“So, if you do your health check on a regular basis, we can detect something early, get the treatment for it and the chance for recovery will be quicker.
“Vaccination is a big one because preventative medicine is so much more important than doing treatment — any age group for male from birth to passing — chat with your doctor and see if you are up to date with your vaccinations.”
GV Health Oncology Unit prostate cancer specialist nurse Sonia Strachan couldn’t agree more.
“With prostate cancer, we don't actually want men to wait until their symptoms show because often if there are symptoms, they might have advanced disease and in saying that you can have issues with your prostate that aren't related to cancer too,” she said.
“We want them to be speaking to their GP about having a PSA blood test because we want to be proactive rather than reactive.”
Men’s Health Week isn’t just about physical health, it’s also about shining a light on mental health.
“We’re so focused on blood tests and physical tests but one thing we forget to talk about is our emotions and feeling sad. Men tend not to share their emotions as well as females do,” Dr Chua said.
“Mental health is the biggest thing we encourage males to talk to their GP about and it takes a lot of courage to talk about it, but don’t think that there is no-one there to help … It’s just about opening up and talking about it.”
As to what type of check you need to complete, it all depends on your age, personal and family history and your individual concerns as to what sort of management screening plan the doctor customises for you.
“For a male over 40 years old, we do a metabolic screening which includes measuring your cholesterol, sugar and a heart check and we also encourage them to have a skin check,” Dr Chua said.
“Over 50 years, we do the same and including bowel cancer screening, and over 70 we offer a bone density scan in case of osteoporosis.”
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