Today

Dr Ian Banks, president of the Men's Health Forum, looks at how men can be encouraged to visit their GP more often.

"All the evidence shows that men are much more reluctant to admit to health problems than women. They visit their family doctor less often than women and go to the pharmacist less often. Just go into any GP's surgery or hospital ward and you will find it dominated by women. Then go to a Well Man clinic and you will probably find it empty.

All this might not matter, except for the fact that men are less healthier than women. Their life expectancy is less than women's - five years less - and at every age up until 79 more men die than women.

One recent survey found that a third of men would risk their health by not going to the doctor's quickly enough. By contrast, women are more sophisticated in how they use health services because through necessities such as birth control, they familiarize themselves with the system earlier in life.

Now the Men's Health Forum have set out to discover why it is that men visit their GP less than women.

As part of the Government's consultation exercise on the future of GP services, the Forum is asking men what would make them more likely to visit their GP and what new service they would introduce to improve the health of men in their community.

We need to know whether men avoid going to the GP because they are too scared or because they see illness as a weakness? If we can get men to see their GPs sooner, then they can be treated more quickly and lives can be saved. Too often men present with symptoms late in the course of an illness.

Yet there is evidence that men are not as indifferent to their health as is often supposed. They just respond to a different environment. They use health websites much more to find out information. One recent study found that nearly one in five men (19 per cent) under 34 looked for health information on the internet. In older men the figures were even higher.

Men are also more willing to phone up confidential telephone advice lines. In short, they are more comfortable with confidentiality and anonymity.

But GP services themselves can do more. They have done little to encourage men to attend, although they know that men are reluctant users of their services. For instance, much more can be done to make the average doctor's surgery more attractive. Their current hours of opening are simply not providing a good enough services for most men and it is vital that they become more accessible for men.

We also need to ensure that walk-in centres maximize their potential for providing healthcare for men.

By clicking on to www.malehealth.co.uk men can complete the Men's Health Forum survey."