Politicians need to man up on men’s health

Copperfield unpicks the Government’s call for evidence for the new men’s health strategy

How typical of our matriarchal society to clarify the legal definition of ‘woman’ but leave us ‘men’ still flailing about uncertainly. I’m comfortable, though: I was born male, I do blokey things like lager and football, and I definitely see myself as a man – except after Monday morning surgery when I identify as an extra from Dawn of the Dead. If I’m left in any doubt, then gender-loaded insults reinforce my identity, so thanks to all those people (and there are many) who call me a complete knob.

So, being 300% male, you’d imagine I’d be delighted to hear about the men’s health strategy’s call for evidence and ideas. And, yes, that will make a nice change from women’s health drum-banging. We may even achieve medical parity with those unburdened by the Y chromosome: andrology hubs, say, or season tickets on prescription, or even a Men’s Health Tsar (I hear Gary Lineker’s free).

The problem is, much of what is spoken about men’s health is utter testicles. Starting with them, specifically. Encouraging regular, ritualistic testicular self-examination is completely non-evidence based, and even a cursory scrutiny of the logic shows it’s main effect would be to neuroticise men.

Then there’s the old cliché of men under-using health services compared to women. Guess what? Strip away all the strictly girly stuff (menopause, breasts, pregnancy, smears, contraception, gynae etc) and do the same for the guys (prostates, penises, testicles) then that difference all but vanishes.

Even the oft-quoted gender life expectancy discrepancies aren’t quite what they seem: they’re skewed by the fact that suicide disproportionately affects younger males. Which isn’t great in itself, but does illustrate that these issues are more nuanced than you might think.

That’s not to say men don’t need help with their health, and teaching them how to spell prostate would be a start. But there’s the danger that well-meaning health stunts and public opinion aka ‘ideas’, rather than good quality science, aka ‘evidence’, will drive policy – just for the sake of being seen to do something. Hence men over 50 being encouraged to request a PSA, despite screening not currently being recommended, simply because there’s a clamour for it. I don’t hear anyone applying that logic to requests for antibiotics in viral illness.

So to implement a credible men’s health policy, politicians must be prepared to make themselves unpopular by blocking out a lot of populist background noise and focusing on the science. Which means they’ll have to man up. Or something like that.

Dr Tony Copperfield is a GP in Essex.