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10 Things Your Primary Care Doctor Does That Should Make You Run for the Hills
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Dr. Orrange received her BA in Biology at the University of California, San Diego, and a Masters Degree in Health Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health. She received her MD from the USC Keck School of…
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The 10 REAL Reasons Men Don't Go to the Doctor
Men die at higher rates than women for all of the leading causes of death. We know the reasons men give when surveyed about why they avoid the doctor: "I don't have the time; it's too expensive, I'm afraid of what I might find out, I'm fine." Here are the 10 reasons I think men stay away from the doctor. Correct me if I'm wrong.
1) You are afraid we will put our finger in your butt. We will, especially if you are over 40 or have any complaints related to your bowel movements. Yes, you get a rectal exam after the age of 40 once a year for a feel of your prostate and so we can check your stool for microscopic blood that you can't see.
2) You are afraid we will examine your balls. We will, if you are 40 or younger. The peak age for testicular cancer is 18-40 so guidelines recommend you get a once a year testicular exam. Don't worry it won't hurt at all.
3) I feel FINE. I am glad you feel fine, but you can feel FINE with high cholesterol, high blood pressure and elevated blood sugars. Your mother or wife won't feel fine when they are taking care of you after you have a stroke. Don't wait until you feel awful to come see us.
4) Going to the Doctor is a chick thing. Many of you feel this way but remember we live longer than you. If doctor visits are a chick thing well, then, nursing homes are a guy thing. You have to get over this. It's true the waiting room magazines are not for guys but when you come see us you will see that many of the medical assistants, doctors, phlebotomists and medical records folks are men. Real men go to doctors.
5) You are embarrassed to talk about what's going on with you. The bright red blood on the toilet paper when you wipe, the red itchy rash in your groin and on your feet, the problems you have at times getting a boner, getting up at night a few times to pee, we hear it all the time. You are not alone and our job is to show you how common this is and help fix it for you.
6) You don't find the office hours convenient. I get this and urge you to find a doctor who is accessible and can work around your office hours. Seriously though, the average guy watches 16 hours of TV a week, you can come for a 30 minute visit once a year and maybe a couple follow up visits as needed.
7) Going to the Doctor is giving in to your nagging wife. I had a patient who gave his wife for her 20th anniversary a copy of his Lipitor prescription, thinking this was a GIFT to his wife that he was taking care of his medical issues. It is true, women rightly so nag their dads, brothers and husbands to go to the doctor because they are tired of square dancing with other women at the assisted living facilities.
8) You don't realize we are here for prevention. You don't have to be sick to come see us and if you establish a relationship with us you have easy access when you do get sick. Once a year we can touch base with you to discuss age appropriate screening which we KNOW helps you stay well.
9) You don't have a relationship with a physician. If you are not attached to a regular physician by the age of 40 you are more likely to get in trouble. Unlike woman who need annual pap smears and contraception, you haven't had to see someone regularly from the age of 18-30. Find someone your friends use or enlist your partners help to find someone that might be a connection. You want someone accessible and younger physicians are much more likely to email so look until you find the right match.
10) You think we will pick on you for your habits. Drinking a 12 pack on the weekends, not exercising and eating bad foods, among other things. These things are not as uncommon as you might expect. We will put you on a long leash and let you pick and choose the habits to get rid of as needed.
See you soon!
Dr O.
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most have an ego the size of a small state, and resent the informed patient
they want to do it their way, and dont listen to the patients needs
they are like the 5th leading cause of death, visiting your doctor
they call it a doctors practice, ill come back when they get it right
why dont others go, many still cant afford it. no natl healthcare ya know
except for illegals, prisoners and pple very poor its free.
tell me who could afford to visit any er in this country without healthcare
coverage?
My middle son is to embarrassed to go to the doctor, despite my always going for preventative and acute care. I told him you can make all the money in the world but you cannot buy health.
My primary asks plenty of questions and never makes me feel foolish so I like him very much.
Yup, guilty. It's like an admission of being weak and frail, and even though I'm in the process of said admission I still hate it since it makes me feel soft.
But there is a difference.
Women and men have "evolved" in a different environment.
Historically, the female of the species was around other women, in the clan, tribe, extended family... whatever the local customs dictated. They constantly depended on each other for emotional support, help with the children, assistance with chores, whatever needed to be done, and they understood the times when someone else might not feel up to their best, and women were more than willing to step up for each other.
What do we know of the male customs? They were the ones who went out for the hunting and defending. They did the emotional "heavy lifting" and when it came time to face danger the men were required to step up, no matter what they were facing. Men who cowed in the face of danger were ostracized, sometimes even required to leave the family unit.
The result was that courage and even aggression were often rewarded, enough so that they have become a part of male genetics.
When a man "forgets" to go for periodic medical exams he is merely failing to recognize his own mortality. That is a trait that was required for survival in the brutal times. How could he face an enemy or a vicious beast if he thought he were about to die?
We now live in a different world.
Just as the women have kept some of their ancestors behavior patterns, so to have men. They are patterns that have been a part of the species for so long that we sometimes fail to consider where they came from.
When women head off to the ladies room together they are simply participating in mutual grooming, a part of the tribal behavior that welcomed a new woman into the extended family or maintained the already existing bond of the females in the tribe. But that is still acceptable in a world that has become politically correct.
Male behaviors that assured the existence of the species are now considered undesirable, and even criminal. Males are being required to evolve while the females are basically the same creatures that they've always been.
Yes, I go to the doctor regularly. I went when I had chest pain. I've bent over and grabbed my ankles (but I always find a male doctor) and fortunately I'm still in reasonable health for my age.
But some of those original 10 reasons are simply an attempt to project female behavior patterns onto males. Really, it's more basic than that.
physician, heal thyself. and besides everything to do is either illegal, immoral, fattening or causes heart disease and cancer. so
what should we do to keep our health? never live? i've died many times. by faith i was made whole again. i will die one day of living.
life itself will have killed me. lol.
For those who asked (rightly so) how I can do a rectal exam on a patient I dont know...actually its very easy....we look at things in parts--not as a whole....and its easy to look and feel during a rectal exam without thinking about where you are...just focusing on the part. I cant tell you how many thousands Ive done.
He had endure multiple rectal exams, radiation cancer treatment, surgical seed implant treatment-oh that was a good one-it wasn't his butt in danger that day, it was his penis that had something up it. Radiation treatments every day 5 days a week, for 5-6 weeks, butt naked for that one-only from the waist down, of course.
He was only 49 when this was discovered, when I nagged him to go get his cholesterol checked and the doc thought "hmmm, you are almost 50, let's test the PSA while we are at it.." His PSA was so high that he had to start treatment within the month. We were lucky that it had not spread to other parts of his body. A friend of his from childhood chose not to go to the doctor for his tests..his family buried him 3 years ago.
So maybe a finger up your butt isn't sounding so bad at this point? Oh, and for the guy who wondered about the fingernails...you are aware that doctors use these new fangled things called "gloves" when they make exams?
One more point of note..we women go thru a whole lot of butt invasions throughout our lives--at least once every year during our PAP tests, multiple times during pregnancy..make that EACH pregnancy, more during giving birth, after birth and back on schedule of once a year til we leave this earth.
I personally am hoping that one of the perks of the after life means no more such tests. But while I'm here, while my husband and children are here..we will endure a minor embarassment once a year to ensure that we are here as long and as healthy as we can be.
Sorry...another point of note, I swear it's the last one! My husband wasn't alone in all this--it affected our family too. We could have lost him, I could have been looking at a future of being the old lady with too many cats, in my rocking chair sitting alone. My children would have been father-less and our grandson would never have known the grandfather he looks for every day at 5:30, so they can go for their walk and talk.
So, avoiding an exam that takes less than 5 minutes a year...not sounding like such a good idea now is it? Not when you realize that it's not just you who loses...it's everyone you love in your life.