Why Won’t Men Go to the Doctor?
One day this summer I received a call from a middle-aged black male friend. I could tell from his voice that there was something wrong. “I’m having chest pain that radiates down my left arm”, he said. My friend has several health issues that are risk factors for a heart attack: high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol. You can guess what I advised him to do. Go to the Emergency Room!
He refused to go.
His reasons? At first, he said he was concerned about the bill. My friend is employed at a job that has excellent benefits including health insurance. He drives a nice car and is always dressed to the nines. Why wouldn’t an ER visit for chest pain be as important as his car and clothes?
The second reason he gave was that he didn’t have time. Between work and family obligations it was simply too inconvenient to be admitted to the hospital. And besides, he said, a friend had a similar complaint and it turned out to be nothing serious. Why spend all that time and money for something that is probably nothing?
Probably nothing? But what if it is something, I argued. Don’t you want to find out for sure? Hello? Death would be more inconvenient than the ER, don’t you think?
And so we argued. Thing is, I have had similar arguments with several of my black male friends. Most of them have given me reasons why they stay away from the doctor that sound very much like those stated above. And some of them have offered no reason at all other than, “because I don’t want to”, or “I feel fine”.
My father was one of those men. Growing up, I can’t ever remember him going to the doctor…except for the visit that eventually led to his diagnosis of prostate cancer. He died three years later at the age of 57. To this day, I believe that his outcome could have been different if his cancer was caught earlier. Technically his cause of death was metastatic prostate cancer. But personally, I think he also died from being a black man.
My friend with the chest pain? He’s fine. After being practically coerced by friends and family, he finally went to the ER, got an extensive cardiac evaluation in the hospital and was discharged home. I hope he agrees that the peace of mind he got from his good news was priceless. Fortunately he does realize that paying attention to his blood pressure, diabetes and cholesterolwith periodic visits to his doctor will lessen his chance of seeing the inside of that ER again.
Is it time for your check up?
