Men – come and see us now! We have an important role to play in your health.
We can have a positive impact on your current health and will work with you toward better health in the future. With active health promotion and targeted advice and investigation, the healthcare shy man can look forward to a healthier, more fulfilled, and active life.
Why do men need special attention?
Men do not access healthcare in the same way as women. We know that women access their general practitioner regularly throughout their lifespan, for routine checkups such as cervical screening or breast exams.
Women are often the ones who bring in the children for health issues and vaccinations and women need to attend for contraception and maternity care. Because of these regular visits, women are more familiar with using health services as well as being the more health responsible sex – men take more risks, drink more, smoke more, and generally choose more unhealthy lifestyle options.
Men tend to leave it until they are older to access a GP and men can be very stoic, which means they don’t tend to ask for help. Please come and see us regularly.
Are you aged over 45?
When you see us, we may take the opportunity to do a preventive health check and to talk with you about things like diet, physical activity and weight control. This is particularly important as men reach middle age, specifically 45 years and older. This can be a crucial intervention point to prevent you from experiencing chronic disease later in life. An example of an issue that can occur in men at this life stage is weight gain, which is a risk factor for diabetes, cardiovascular disease (CVD) and stroke.
Following a healthy lifestyle and managing cardiovascular risk factors may slow the progression of existing cognitive impairments.
The best evidence of benefit is when these interventions are introduced when you are in your 40s and 50s, before the symptoms of cognitive ageing have become noticeable. There are also numerous other benefits to improving lifestyle, such as better cardiovascular health, improved quality of life and longer life expectancy.
You will receive AAAAA care
We look at you as a whole person, rather than focus on one health problem. We want to understand you in the context of your family and whanau, employment, your life experience and all the life factors that are important to you. This health approach is called holistic health care.
Over time and several visits, we will work with you to establish common goals, explore ways of looking at your current lifestyle, and find and try new ways of fulfilling personal values, needs, motives and expectations. We hope this will help you become more aware of your health and reduce your risk of disease.
We Doctors love our acronyms – you will receive AAAAA treatment. We will:
- Ask you about risk factors or early signs of major health problems.
- Assess your level of risk and diagnose as early as possible.
- Advise and motivate you to lower your risk.
- Assist you with treatments and therapies.
- Arrange referral and follow-up.
This sounds a bit clinical, but in practice this is an ongoing conversation and dialogue. We enjoy working with men and hope that we can share our Toi Toi Medical value of “Fun” with you, by bringing some humor to your visit.
There are some analogies for men visiting the doctor. For example, visiting a GP is like taking the car to the mechanic. When someone brings in the car for a service, it won’t usually have a lot of problems, but the mechanic will check the oil, the water and the brake pads, and see whether the car needs major work. We want to issue you a WOF.
Consider a rock and a pillow. It’s easy to smash a rock with a sledgehammer, but it’s impossible to smash a pillow with a sledgehammer. Men can think that by being tough and hard they are making themselves more resilient. In fact, it’s the opposite – they are making themselves more fragile. Hardening yourself up is actually a pathway to breakdown.
Awareness of men’s health is growing and we want to work with you to help this progress.
Health and the workplace
We can help with pre-employment medical checks, ACC and accidents, Medical certificates, workplace stress, driver’s license checkups, travel medicine and advice, and more.
Some men may have the chance to do regular workplace checkups through their employer. Some men may resist finding out about their health status or be anxious about it. They may be worried about what the results of the health assessment might show and the implications for working and employment. We do not give any of your personal health information to your employer unless you give your express consent. If you have any concerns about how your health could impact on your employment or work, please talk about it with us.
Men’s health issues
As well as general health we can help with issues specific to men, such as Prostate cancer, testicular cancer and erectile dysfunction.