Getting Your Man to Get His Check-ups

By Christina Elston

“Part of it is because they don’t need pap smears,” says UCLA internist Camelia Davtyan, M.D., only half jokingly. She’s trying to explain why men are 100 percent less likely to visit their doctor regularly than are women. And though they don’t go, they often know they really should.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, one in five American men has heart disease and three in four are overweight.

Diseases like prostate and testicular cancer, which affect only men, are often treatable if caught early.

And while the life expectancy of men has been increasing, they still die an average of six years younger than do women.

What They Need

“Men definitely tend to neglect preventive healthcare more than women,” says Sharon Orrange, M.D., who serves on the faculty at USC’s Keck School of Medicine and has a private practice in Los Angeles.

But even younger men need cholesterol and blood pressure screening, as well as vaccinations (flu shot yearly, tentanus and pertussis vaccination every 10 years), Davtyan says.

After age 40 Orrange urges all men to get an annual exam and to “know their numbers”:

• weight

• blood pressure

• fasting blood sugar, to detect diabetes

• fasting cholesterol panel, with levels of both “good” and “bad” cholesterol

What Gets Them to the Doctor

But those numbers aren’t likely to get men to put on the paper gown. “What drives them to the doctor is generally a problem, and it’s usually a problem they can see,” Orrange explains. Things like a rash or swelling will get them in there.

Another thing that tends to bring men to the doctor is having a family member or friend diagnosed with something.

Eric Naftulin, a 42-year-old father of three who says he’s been diligent about checkups and screenings since he turned 30, says that’s true of him. “The reason I’m so proactive with my health is because I was born with genetically high cholesterol. My paternal grandfather suffered a heart attack at 32,” Naftulin says.