PEDESTRIAN.TV has teamed up with Movember to help raise awareness for men’s health.
More and more young men in Australia are avoiding trips to the doctor, sparking concern over their health.
Recent findings from the Movember Institute of Men’s Health revealed that many young men, especially those aged 18-24, lack confidence in understanding their health. In fact, 15% of men in this age group feel unsure about their health literacy and knowledge, and over a third feel stigmatised when accessing health education. As a result, an alarming 40% of young men find navigating health information confusing and overwhelming.
These factors are contributing to the premature death of men. According to the Global Burden of Disease Network, 77 per cent of male deaths can be attributed to five risk factors, all of which are preventable. This, paired with delays in help-seeking, can often lead to symptoms worsening and becoming more critical.
I’m personally very guilty of this. I waited out so many injuries in my early 20s until they reached a peak of being too uncomfortable to live with or eventually went away. Years ago, I powered through glandular fever to work through a three-hour shift at my hospitality job because I didn’t think it was serious enough to call in for a sick day.
The reasons I didn’t go to a doctor immediately and waited over a week while symptoms got worse are similar to what was reported above. I didn’t feel confident in understanding my health, and it felt overwhelming to acknowledge that I needed help. There’s also the big “gender stereotypes” in the room here. It’s embarrassing as a guy to talk about our bodies. Unless it’s a punchline to a joke, I don’t want mine to be the point of conversation ever.
However, finding the confidence to talk to a doctor about these problems can be the difference between life and death. Someone who’s been trying to help young men is Roshan Karunaratne, a Movember men’s health ambassador. Roshan has spent years raising awareness for topics like mental health and cancer. At 27 years old, Roshan’s brother Shehan was diagnosed with testicular cancer. If detected early, the disease has a 95% survival rate, but Shehan was nervous about the possibility that he might lose a testicle, he put off seeing a doctor..
Shehan had noticed a lump 12 months before diagnosis, and by the time he sought medical advice, the cancer had spread to his lungs, and grown on the nerves down his back, around his hip and down his legs. After this, Roshan became a staunch advocate in getting men to talk about their health, and steer them on the path of seeing their doctor more often so that no one would go through what his family did.
I had a similar scare years ago. When I was 23, I started waking up throughout the night, with a serious urge to pee. It would happen several times, with little relief after a trip to the loo. It felt like a relentless cycle — falling asleep and then being jolted awake with this uncomfortable pressure on my bladder. It was a frustrating endless loop, like waiting for the bass to drop in a song, but it never does and the building anxiety slowly turns into impassitivity. As the week wore on, this discomfort escalated into a burning pain, and at times, my left testicle would briefly go numb.
Eventually, I did book that doctor’s appointment and I was a mess the whole time, bargaining and considering cancelling. It’s always a mixed feeling to have a doctor inspect you and go “Yep, that’s not good.” Some parts validating, other parts anxiety-inducing. Following this, I spent a month asking my friends and family to drive me to appointments, going back and forth between doctors to get ultrasounds performed on my kidneys and my testicles. Eventually, I had to pee in a cup while a gigantic X-ray behind me recorded the whole thing.
After all this, we’d figure out that I had a UTI mixed with Vesicoureteral reflux. A UTI is all about peeing out the infection with antibiotics, but with the reflux, it would just shoot back up, which was what was causing the pain. Had I left it for longer, I’m not sure what would have happened.
Having all of those appointments was a huge wake-up call and it entirely removed the anxiety I had about going to see a doctor whenever I think something’s wrong. It’s also made me a huge advocate of encouraging friends to seek medical help whenever they think something is wrong. Because if you do think something’s wrong, there’s no harm in getting it checked.
Movember’s commitment to improving the state of men’s health, thanks to a passionate network of global Movember supporters has amassed over AUD 1.5 billion over the last 20 years. These critical funds have delivered more than 1,350 men’s health projects around the world improving health outcomes for men worldwide.
If you’d like to support Movember’s advocacy efforts and motivate change in prioritising men’s health, be sure to visit Movember’s site and make your voice heard.
Image Credit: Scrubs / NBC
The post Why Do Young Men Avoid The Doctor Like The Plague? New Research Has Found 3 Key Reasons appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
