Men are 40% more likely to die prematurely than women, while 97% of GPs say they saw male patients presenting with suicidal behaviour in the past year.

That’s according to the “Real Face of Men’s Health” report ahead of Movember.

GP, coroner for the district of Donegal and President of the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) Denis McCauley joined Newstalk Breakfast to discuss the findings.

“[Men] are ostriches,” he said.

“We don’t discuss our health with each other, we don’t have support networks where we can offload to somebody who can say, ‘Listen, you should go and see your actual doctor about that’.

“As a result of that, men compared to women, we’re 40% more likely to die prematurely – that's before you’re 75.”

Patient suffering from stress, eye pain and migraine visiting doctor at hospital. Alamy.com

Mr McCauley said he sees this as a societal issue.

“I think we, first of all, say, ‘Can we change it? Are there factors that we can change that would influence this?’ And the answer is yes,” he said.

“I think if you look at the commonest cause of cancer and death under 75, it is lung cancer and smoking is the primary issue there.

“I think prostate cancer is very common, it’s a cancer that is easily ruled out by visiting your GP; within a day we can rule out you don’t have prostate cancer, and similarly we can find out if you do have cancer.

“Then finally colon cancer, there is a very good screening program in Ireland.”

According to Mr McCauley, “there’s lots we can do” when it comes to cancer.

Suicide

Mr McCauley also said that in men is a huge issue.

“I am also the coroner for Donegal, so suicide is something we see very commonly,” he said.

“I don’t think we can ever eliminate suicide, but we can lessen it.

“We can see the effect it has on families, and there are probably over 500 suicides in Ireland every year.

“Anecdotally, that may have increased since COVID, but we’ll have to wait fort the actual figures.

“If you look at the CSO figures for suicide, I don’t think they reflect the actual amount; there’s a thing called the probable suicide study, which says there’s about 500 [suicides] a year.”

If you have been affected by issues raised in this article, you can contact The Samaritans on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.ie.

Main image: Mature Male Patient In Consultation With Doctor In Office