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Remember – symptoms do not mean you have cancer—most of the time, they are caused by something entirely benign. If you notice a persistent, unexplained change in your body lasting more than three weeks, get it checked by a doctor. It is natural to be anxious if you detect worrying symptoms. If you get them checked out, then most of the time, the answer will be a reassuring one. If not, early detection saves lives. Half the people who get cancer survive, and many of the others are those who were diagnosed later. Read a transcript
Men avoid getting symptoms checked more than women
In the United Kingdom, a pronounced gender gap in healthcare engagement reveals that men are significantly less likely than women to make use of preventative and routine medical services. According to the ONS Health Insight Survey from February 2025, commissioned by NHS England, 45.8% of women compared to just 33.5% of men had attempted to make contact with their GP practice for themselves or someone else in their household in the last 28 days.
Men not only report lower rates of dental registration and pharmacy usage, but they also attend considerably fewer hospital outpatient appointments, even when pregnancy-related visits are excluded from the data. According to Paul Galdas, a professor of men’s health at the University of York, men are generally less inclined to schedule routine checkups, often delaying medical care until their symptoms actively disrupt daily life.
This reluctance to seek early intervention is compounded by higher rates of high-risk behaviors and pre-existing health conditions among men, who smoke, consume alcohol, use drugs, and suffer from high cholesterol and high blood pressure more frequently than women. These combined factors contribute directly to a stark mortality gap: men have a life expectancy that is four years shorter than women’s, and they are nearly 60% more likely to die prematurely before the age of 75 from preventable or manageable causes such as heart disease, lung cancer, liver disease, and accidents.
While routine interventions like the NHS health checks—offered every five years to individuals aged 40 to 74—could mitigate many of these life-threatening risks, fewer than 40% of eligible men actually participate. Furthermore, these challenges are exacerbated by critical ethnic disparities within men’s health; black men in England are twice as likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer, while men of Indian or Bangladeshi descent face an exceptionally high risk of developing diabetes.
