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Aside from the "suck it up and tough it out" attitude, another contributing factor to lack of male doctor visits stems, I think, from a vast overestimation of the male body's durability and simplicity. Watch a few hours' worth of TV, and you'll be bombarded with commercials for feminine hygiene products, commercials about breast cancer, supplements for osteoporosis (which is almost always framed as a mainly female infirmity), birth control, etc. Words like 'menopause' and 'PMS' are a common part of our social lexicon. Thus, it's common knowledge among men and women and girls and boys alike that the female body is an ultra-sophisticated apparatus that requires high maintenance. Doctor visits are established as a normal consequence of being a post-pubescent female, and at the very first sign of "trouble", women are ready to get on the phone and make the appointment because they live in a culture that anticipates female infirmities and makes the process of seeking medical help seem completely normal.
But, what about men and boys? We are left to infer that, compared to women, we might as well be hollow. The only really popularly known male-unique disease is prostate cancer, which of course is associated with older men. In my life, I've never seen a commercial for testicular cancer (which can occur in men as young as fifteen); my first awareness of the disease was when I discovered a small article about it in a medical yearbook that came with my family's encyclopedia set. I'd be willing to bet most men become aware of it through similar happenstance (or, unhappily, if they or someone they know gets the disease). We generally associate heart disease and certain other types of cancers with men, but they are not technically gender-specific - thus the impression that the male body is generic and should operate smoothly until middle-age. Thus, younger men and boys are left thinking that doctor visits outside of sports physicals should not be a normal part of life as a male, and that if they think there's a "problem", it might be from something being wrong with them and that when they go to the doctor (or even merely ask to go to the doctor, if they're still dependent on their parents), they might only get strange looks, interrogations and derision.
Men need information...not feminization.
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"It is my personal belief that this is because of the old stereotype in which men must "suck it up and tough it out" while women are too delicate to be allowed to experience any discomfort."
Depression is a medical condition, that, once it afflicts someone, in its most serious form, is virtually impossible to "suck in". Probably women are actually more prone to this disease for a number of reason--but I think only a small percentage related to social norms. I've seen many tough and no-nonsense men suffer from severe, life-threatening depressions--frequently with no clear-cut precipitant
There is a low-level depression, called dysthymia, which, in my opinion, may be more inclined to be experienced by women. My belief is that men, less than women, "expect" to be happy. In general, men are less distraught when they don't feel good, and less introspective when they are "down."
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