As healthcare professionals, we are concerned for the health and wellbeing of everyone – regardless of gender, sex, age, culture, background or beliefs. However, it can be helpful to focus on a certain group at a time to really understand the health challenges that many people are facing.
With Men’s Health Week celebrated in June, I thought this a timely opportunity to consider why there is still so much work needed in the field.
The risks of being male
Men are at a higher risk of various systemic health conditions. These include cardiovascular disease and stroke mortality, which are up to five times higher and twice as high in men than women, respectively. Kidney stones are also more common among men. Differences have been found between the sexes regarding the immune system as well, with men experiencing more severe symptoms of conditions like the coronavirus. Regarding dental health, men disproportionately experience periodontal disease and dental trauma. In most cases, hormones are suspected to be behind differences in the sexes.
In addition, men have a higher risk of cancer compared to women at most shared anatomical sites – including kidney, gastric cardia, biliary tract, skin, liver, oropharynx, bladder and larynx. With regards to male-specific concerns, the number of prostate cancer diagnoses in Europe has increased by 41 per cent between 1993/95 and 2015/17, though this slowed to four per cent between 2005/07 and 2015/17. In the UK, more than 52,000 new cases of prostate cancer were diagnosed annually between 2016 and 2018. The good news is that the survival rate of prostate cancer for 10 or more years is nearly 80 per cent, so it remains a fairly manageable disease if caught early. The disease is a key focus of the Men’s Health Week 2024 campaign.
Barriers to healthcare
In this day and age, you would hope that no barriers exist based on sex that would prevent someone from getting essential care. However, there are still areas that we as a society need to work on.
A systematic review from 2016 reported several factors influencing the uptake of health screening for men. Facilitators included the partner’s role, a desire to be healthy in order to look after family and a non-invasive screening procedure. Key factors that prevented men from attending health screenings included fear of receiving a disease diagnosis, a perceived low risk of long-term problems, fear of a painful screening procedure, time restraints and a lack of knowledge about health or screening.
Within the social domain, knowledge, attitudes and values, fear, and masculinity are featured widely. This highlights the continued existence of a stigma around men’s health and a perception that seeking help is a weakness of some kind. The study found that heterosexual self-presentation and the avoidance of femininity were leading barriers to health screening for men.
Sadly, these findings support previous research that men would rather hide signs of pain of suffering to meet societal expectations of them. A more recent poll also found that one in three dads wouldn’t know how to talk to their sons about health, and 17 per cent of them would find it awkward and uncomfortable.
This is something that must change if we are to give men the healthcare and support that they need – and deserve – without fear of judgment.
Modern masculinity
It seems this change is already afoot. The attitudes of younger generations today are driving new ideals and challenging traditional values of what a ‘man’ should be. A 2021 systematic review reported an evolution of public perception towards all manner of topics, including sexuality, emotional intimacy, and the establishment of any gender roles. The new generation is challenging traditional values in favour of increased inclusivity and a whole new approach to masculinity.
It is hoped that this change in public perception will encourage men to be more open about their health and related concerns. In turn, this would increase the number of men who attend health screenings and enhance early detection – and therefore improved management – of all health conditions.
Back to the dental practice
Of course, all of this is interesting stuff, but what we need to focus on as dental professionals is how we can better care for our patients. Keeping in the mind the impact that traditional values may have on our male patients, we should be trying to beat the stigmas with conversation and education.
Where we can, it’s our duty to get the conversation started. By sharing important health information and signposting individuals to trusted resources that they can browse in their own time, we can encourage more men to educate themselves on a range of health topics. We can also show that these are not taboo topics to discuss. If we can talk about them in an unbiased, judgement-free way, we set a good example for others to follow.
References available on request.