Two years ago, Dan Somaras began to experience a series of strange and unexplained symptoms. He had severe chest pain, he was unable to keep food or water down and kept “sustaining bile”.

Although he understood that something could go wrong, Dan was reluctant to seek medical help. Ipswich’s 43 -year -old BBC tells, “When I come down to doctors, I am really stubborn.” “I didn’t want to be a burden.”

Dan’s pain continued worse, until he was “screaming enough on the floor in pain” and had to take time out of work. This was the worst pain that he has ever experienced, he says on reflection.

But “I honestly thought that I can try and fix it,” Dan recalls.

It was his wife who finally managed to push Dan to see the doctor.

His GP sent him directly to the hospital, where he detected a gallbladder infection and spent a week to recover. He was told that he was close to getting sepsis.

Dan’s story reflects other men who have told the BBC that they have also stopped asking for medical treatment – often until their symptoms become unbearable or until a dear person pushed them to get help.

It is well known that men go to lesser doctors than women, and data return it.

NHS told the BBC that it does not release demographic data about GP appointments. But according to the ONS Health Insight Survey from February, NHS was commissioned by England, 45.8% of women tried to make contact with their GP practice for their or someone else in their home in the last 28 days compared to 33.5% of men.

Men were more likely to say that they were not registered in a dental practice and “rarely or never” also used a pharmacy.

They make outpatient appointments of the hospital much less than women, even when pregnancy -related appointments are exempted.

Paul Galdas, a men’s health professor at York University, says, “Men are less likely to participate in regular appointments and help.

This affects the health results of all men.

Experts say that there is a long list of reasons why male can seek medical help, and new survey data of NHS shows that they are worried about how they are considered.

In the survey, 48% of male respondents agreed that they felt a degree of pressure to “hard” when they came on potential health issues, while a third agree that they were talking about potential health concerns, making others weak. Pole heard about 1,000 men in England in November and December 2024.

The Society said that Brandon Gough, a social psychological professor at Leeds Backet University, says that self -sufficiency, freedom and not showing vulnerability associates masculinity with symptoms. “Men are traditionally considered to solve things themselves”.

NHS Medical Director Dr. for primary care. “It is concerned to see how many men still feel unable to talk about their health concerns,” says Claire Fuller. She notes that male may be reluctant to seek medical help for mental health and to change their body that can be signs of cancer.

She says, “GPS is often the best way they need help.”

Kevin McMulan says that he has learned by working for men’s mental health donations that men want to solve their problems. He says that he struggled with his mental health for years, before he takes help.

“You want to fix it yourself,” says Kevin, 44-year-old from Cezfield in County Durham. Male is the inherent problem-solution and how you are feeling, it is a problem in the same way that having a flat tire is a problem. “

This is something that also indicates the Health Insights Survey. Data suggests that when people were unable to contact their GP practice, men were much likely to report “self-management” than women, while women were more likely than men than men going to pharmacy or calling 111.

“Many men feel that taking help threatens their freedom or a sense of ability,” is called Prof. Galdas.

Professor Galdas points to other factors that prevent men from going to doctors, such as the appointment system that does not fit around their working patterns.

Services also trust talking about problems openly, they suggest, who does not indicate how men speak about health concerns – and there are no definite check -ups targeting young men.

54 -year -old Jonathan from Surrey to ANSTE, it was getting worse to appoint their symptoms a doctors, after months of pain in their stool and months of blood.

Jonathan says, “The pain became very bad and blood became very bad.” “But even when I went to the doctors, I was sitting in the waiting room thinking that it was a huge waste of time.”

In September 2022, he was detected bowel cancer.

During his entire life he usually avoided the appointments of doctors, says Jonathan. And as a father, “You are accustomed to worry about your children and not yourself,” they say. They say go to doctors for their children, “not their children,” looked “a little bhog”.

Last year, Jonathan was told that his bowel cancer stage was four.

Blood in your stool looked very embarrassing to talk to his friends and family at that time. Jonathan’s advice for other men: “There is absolutely no need to be embarrassed. The option can kill you – literally.”

In recent years, help groups have jumped for men with cancer and mental health conditions.

Matthew Wiltshire started the Male Charity the Cancer Club in 2015 after the diagnosis of bowel cancer. He died in 2023.

Matthew felt that there was no place “where men were openly talking about that it preferred to undergo cancer,” his son, says Oliver Wiltshire. “He also saw how much the emotional load was carried by the women around him.”

Through the Cancer Club, men can give online messages and participate in sports programs simultaneously.

Oliver says, “Whether it is practical advice, honest chat or someone else, it can be known that the connection can make a big difference.”

Experts say that while the men’s approach to healthcare is gradually changing for better, more work still needs to be done.

Professor Galdas believes that if services are more attached if services are re -designed to meet their needs – focusing on practical action to improve continuous support, flexible access and mental health issues.

He says, “There are good evidence from gender-nervous programs in mental health, cancer care and health checkups.”

Dr. For pillon, it is adding general health check -up for men in their 20s to be used more to reach medical care.

They are already available to people between the ages of 40 to 74 years through NHS, but to present them to young men who cannot go to doctors otherwise, “will embed the idea that you can come and use health services”, they say.

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