Men are more likely to develop cancer then women, according
to the latest figures. Each year 179,000 men receive a cancer diagnosis,
compared with 173,000 women, says Cancer Research UK. Yet the fact remains that
if a woman found a lump she would most likely seek urgent medical advice, while
if the same happens to a man, all too often he will ignore it.
Men don’t seem to like going to the doctor — even when it
comes to something as potentially serious as cancer. A study of over 2,300
people with 15 different cancers found that men were most likely to delay going
to the doctor.
According to the results, published in the British Journal of Cancer, 44 per cent of men with prostate cancer delayed visiting their GP about their symptoms for three months or more, while only 8 per cent of women with breast cancer symptoms put off getting help.
Men are 15 per cent more likely to develop cancer but are 36
per cent more likely to die from it than women, according to figures from
Cancer Research UK.
‘There are various reasons for this: men are not as aware of the symptoms of cancer as women, such as swelling, unexplained weight loss or bleeding.
‘Men also tend to delay going to get their symptoms checked
out, they are perhaps more worried about the diagnosis than women and are less
familiar with the healthcare system.
‘When I was a GP, men tended to apologise for coming, they
would often say they had been pushed into attending by their wife or partner.’
And when men are diagnosed it hits them harder. Figures from
Macmillan cancer care show that 50 per cent of newly diagnosed cancer patients
have levels of anxiety or depression that adversely affect their quality of
life.
Source: Daily Mail.com
Yet men suffer higher levels of depression, anxiety and feelings of hopelessness than women, according to cancer charity Tenovus.
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