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Men vs. Doctor: Why We Avoid Them
Is it our sense of male pride or do we fear embarrassment by
seeing our doctor regularly? We are brave enough to fight in
wars, strong enough to be super heroes. We're cops, athletes,
muscle men, we're tough guys but when it comes time to go to
the doctor we turn mush.
As a general rule, men consult their family doctor much less
often than women do. Women tend to take better care of their
health. But why don't men? There are a variety of reasons
why from being macho to the way we are raised to total mistrust
of the health care system. It might be we are in denial or
embarrassed. Or do we fear all that poking and prodding
doctors seem to do? Whatever the reason, we are doing
ourselves a disservice.
Men are taught from a young age to "get tough" and suck it
in when they are faced with pain. Pain is a sign of weakness
to us and threatens our male pride. Medicinal
herbs, diet pills, fruit,and exercise are what we turn to to
stay fit.
So why do men avoid the doctor? Let's explore some of the
reasons why.
Traditional Values: Traditionally, women took care of the
family health needs. They brought the children to the doctor.
Men have always had a female to tend to our health care needs. If the female doesn't insist we see our doctor,
we are most likely to avoid the problem for as long as possible.
Denial and Fatalism: Men believe by visiting a doctor regularly
they are "looking for problems". We think by denying something
might be wrong, everything is fine. We prefer to get health
advice through our friends and by reading.
Unfamiliarity: Women generally are the ones who bring sick kids
to the doctor or seek attention for gynecological needs. This
leads to a lack of familiarity with our doctor, keeping us
away from visiting on a regular basis. We tend to prefer
going places with others, to have support or just for second
opinions when in unfamiliar places. Our unfamiliarity of
going to the doctor frequently gives us a fear of stumbling
through the process alone and it's something we don't wish
to do.
Pain Tolerance: Men seem to have a lower tolerance to pain
than women. Women tend to report feeling a higher level of
pain than men. The stereotypical man of being strong tends
make us believe we don't get sick. We are taught early to be
aggressive, competitive and to keep our emotions to ourselves.
When our health is affected, we tend to avoid showing pain
until we feel the condition warrants help
Impotence: This attributes to a large section of society that
prohibits them to visit their doctors. Incomplete or little
knowledge of the subject and an embarrassment to talk about
it's causes are reasons we are leery of the doctor.
No one likes bad news and we all avoid doctors to some point,
but it is better to be safe by visiting our doctors on a
regular basis. So instead of avoiding the issue, why not visit
the doctor.
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