Do you think men go to their GP less than women ?

[Daven]

Personally I think women have smaller medical issues but men tend to have big medical issues.....but this is only based upon the people who I know like friends & family.

But also that women tend to have better hours to suit the doctor, like being a stay at home mum, part time hours & shift work, again based upon the people I know we tend to work between 8am to 5pm, after travelling home we have have an half hour slot for an appointment and that doesn't include that my docs are closed Thursday's except for mum & babies. We now only.have a 2 hour slot all week to get seen, doctors need.to do shifts to help men help themselves !

 

GP's need to make themselves more available - open for at least 12 hours every day and 7 days a week to ensure that anyone needing an appointment can have one. This would reduce the overstretched A&E departments massively.

Time for GP's to earn the huge salaries they are paid - they are weakest link in the NHS without a doubt. They provide a very poor service - and as for half day closing on Thursday................. what's that all about ?!

[medusa]

Govt stats suggest that men visit their gp less, from the age of 14 all the way into their 70s.

http://www.hscic.gov.uk/pubs/gpcons95-09

 

It is well documented that women use the lions share of health care resources. I wonder though whether gp referral rates are also higher for women. In other words the dogma about women being 'really' ill when they are sick affects the attitude of doctors towards patients and women are more likely to get the care they need. Perhaps I'm wrong.

 

---------- Post added 13-09-2013 at 22:25 ----------

 

At first glance in the litetature, a study on migraine showing referral rates are about 3x greater for women and ultimate prescription rates about 1/3 higher also. So perhaps the attitude of men towards seeking medical attention is also based on the absence of help being given when sought.

 

Does the literature break down the figures to show how much of the women's prescriptions and primary and secondary healthcare provision is taken up just with reproductive health?

 

I know a huge number of women who have to go to a GP appointment for a prescription of their contraceptive pill. Of course the men don't have to attend a surgery to buy condoms, so that's a sizeable disparity straight away.

 

Then add in all of the midwives/hospitals/GPs attendance that trying to get pregnant, wishing not to be pregnant and actually being pregnant generate and that's another disparity. Even a healthy and trouble free pregnancy will generate probably in excess of 10 appointments and a hospital admission, and a lot of women will have that happen multiple times in their lifetime so even if they don't consult the doctor for anything else at all, they are still major healthcare users.

[NorthernStar]

For me it's the old problem of the doctors being only open when everyone is at work; I haven't seen a doctor in about 18 years and with me moving many times and work patterns often being a bit unpredictable making appointments difficult to make and keep. Truth is that I'm not a sickly person though now well into my forties I feel that I'm well overdue an MOT.

 

A mate of mine with a similar lifestyle recently went and found out he had pernicious anaemia and has to have injections every 3 months but he's bouncing with energy all of a sudden I would mind having similar injections myself:hihi:, alas I still haven't registered and can't seem to find the time:(

[poppet2]

Many men are neither:

a. To macho to go to the doctor as some consider it a sign of weakness to admit to being ill, thinking they should just pull themselves together and not waste a doctor's time. Or

b. They fear they may be faced with a female doctor.

[taxman]

Many men are neither:

a. To macho to go to the doctor as some consider it a sign of weakness to admit to being ill, thinking they should just pull themselves together and not waste a doctor's time. Or

b. They fear they may be faced with a female doctor.

 

A female doctor has never bothered me. As someone else has said it's the general unavailability of the doctor that puts me off wanting an appointment.

 

Either join in the 8.30am free for all phone frenzy to get an appointment that day or try to get one in a couple of weeks time by which time any symptoms have gone.

 

 

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[Rampent]

I agree. I actually have two letters here on my desk inviting me to attend my GP's for a free health check as ''part of a national iniative to reduce strokes, heart attacks and diabetes in people aged over 40''.

 

I haven't made an appointment yet - and I'm not sure I'm going to. The honest truth is, I'm a little concerned about what they'll find out. I know there are things I probably ought to do - quit smoking, drink less, exercise more, but everything's working pretty well at the moment and I hate being told what to do when I know what I ought to do. It feels like my mum nagging me.

 

I'm pretty shocked by this. I never knew you smoked or drank.

[poppet2]

A female doctor has never bothered me.

 

I'm glad you said that because women have never even had the choice of a female doctor until the late twentieth century.

 

---------- Post added 14-09-2013 at 21:56 ----------

 

If we are discussing 'private parts' then yes, that may be more embarrassing for men. But that is just one aspect of our health.

 

I would say that men are healthier than women, and most minor issues are just healed by our own systems.

 

Hence the increase of men leaving it very late when discovering testicular problems that are diagnosed as testicular cancer? Men being embarrassed about being examined by a female doctor or any other doctor re. their private parts.

[biotechpete]

Does the literature break down the figures to show how much of the women's prescriptions and primary and secondary healthcare provision is taken up just with reproductive health?

 

I know a huge number of women who have to go to a GP appointment for a prescription of their contraceptive pill. Of course the men don't have to attend a surgery to buy condoms, so that's a sizeable disparity straight away.

 

Then add in all of the midwives/hospitals/GPs attendance that trying to get pregnant, wishing not to be pregnant and actually being pregnant generate and that's another disparity. Even a healthy and trouble free pregnancy will generate probably in excess of 10 appointments and a hospital admission, and a lot of women will have that happen multiple times in their lifetime so even if they don't consult the doctor for anything else at all, they are still major healthcare users.

 

I haven't checked specifically though I will when I have a chance.

 

The reproductive issue ocurred to me, though the stats suggest women see their GP more than twice as often from 14 and until mid 70s so I guess reproductive issues are not relevant across this whole range.

 

The prescribing sats were specifically about migraine pain, I guess a non-sex skewed complaint yet for each GP attendance women were far more likely to get a secondary care referral. These are all secondary care prescriptions so when referred women get more drugs. I think this is odd.

[martyn1949]

I think this lack of visiting GP has four components:

 

1) Women are much more hypochondriac than men

 

2) Women's magazines are full of health-related stuff, and women lap this up, but men's mags have hardly any medical sh*t in them, as its a turnoff.

 

3) Men see asking for help as weakness, and feel they should soldier on uncomplaining, whereas women whinge constantly about everything that is wrong with them (real or imagined) - so men see being worried about health as a female thing, and to get interested or concerned is demasculinising, Can you ever imaging John Wayne or Bruce Willis going for a checkup before sorting out the bad guys? Nah.

 

4) The persistent refusal of GP surgeries to open at hours when men could attend after work or on Saturdays. There is NO excuse for this in multi-partner practices. Women are much more likely to work part-time, and therefore can get in to the surgery as things stand. Men would have to take time off work, and this is seen as slacking, or letting the side down, not to say rather wussy.

[medusa]

I think this lack of visiting GP has four components:

 

1) Women are much more hypochondriac than men

 

2) Women's magazines are full of health-related stuff, and women lap this up, but men's mags have hardly any medical sh*t in them, as its a turnoff.

 

3) Men see asking for help as weakness, and feel they should soldier on uncomplaining, whereas women whinge constantly about everything that is wrong with them (real or imagined) - so men see being worried about health as a female thing, and to get interested or concerned is demasculinising, Can you ever imaging John Wayne or Bruce Willis going for a checkup before sorting out the bad guys? Nah.

 

4) The persistent refusal of GP surgeries to open at hours when men could attend after work or on Saturdays. There is NO excuse for this in multi-partner practices. Women are much more likely to work part-time, and therefore can get in to the surgery as things stand. Men would have to take time off work, and this is seen as slacking, or letting the side down, not to say rather wussy.

 

Sexist and generalising much?

 

I hate being ill, but I don't really have much choice about it, and the same applies for hypochondria as for paranoia. You're not hypochondriac if you really are ill.

 

What about all of the women who work the same long hours as men?

 

How about the women who detest 'women's' magazines and prefer a copy of the New Scientist?