Important health checks for men

Important health checks for men

05/11/2014

In Germany, various offers for the early detection of diseases are available. But while these can be life-saving, most of the men barely notice them. In addition, men maintain a much unhealthier lifestyle than women. Reason enough to give an overview of important preventive examinations.

Men live unhealthier than women
Generations of men are using sayings like: „An indian knows no pain“ grew up. The image that many men have of themselves as well as of one another is that they should be strong and not show weakness. To this social role attribution fit also that many men do not take it with the health precaution as accurate as the „Frankfurter Rundschau“ reported. Men also have a much unhealthier lifestyle than women. They eat unhealthier, smoke more often, drink more and regular alcohol and make less frequent use of screening and prevention services, as the Federal report on the health of middle-aged women and men states.

Men are more often ill and have lower life expectancy than women
„Health-risky behavior is part of the masculinity stereotype“, it says in the report. „Taking care of one's own health as little as possible, accepting health risks consciously, or exceeding one's own physical or mental limits, or withstanding or denying warning signals such as pain for as long as possible, is considered to be typically male behavior.“ This has fatal consequences. Men are more often ill than women and have a lower life expectancy, as it is on the website on the subject „Men's check-up“ the national center for health promotion in Rhineland-Palatinate is called. The mortality of middle-aged men is twice as high as that of women in this age group, the Federal Health Report predicts. In particular, this applies, for example, to circulatory diseases or diseases of the digestive organs.

Statutory health insurance funds pay for various examinations
Since preventive examinations are not only important, but can sometimes also be life-saving, here is a brief overview of examinations that are taken over by the statutory health insurance funds and which men should undergo. Twice a year, from the age of 18, there is a detailed examination of the teeth, including an inspection of the teeth, the tooth bed, the oral mucosa, the masticatory muscles and the temporomandibular joints. In addition, the dentist can remove tartar once a year free of charge. According to the Federal Center for Health Education (BZgA), men from the age of 35 years can have a so-called health check-up every two years. Among other things, this should serve the early detection of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and kidney diseases. The doctors prepare a medical history at the check-up and blood and urine examinations are then to give further information about the state of health. It also examines whether certain risk factors are met.

Screening for the early detection of cancer
Every two years, the skin cancer insurance is paid by the health insurance for all legally insured persons over the age of 35 years. However, you should inform yourself in advance, since not all dermatologists may bill the skin screening at the cash registers. From the age of 45, men are entitled to prostate cancer once a year. In addition to the prostate, the genitals and the associated lymph nodes in the groin are examined. How important this study can be becomes clear when you realize that prostate cancer is now the most common cancer and the third leading cause of cancer death among men in Germany. According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the number of new cases has risen steadily in recent years. From the age of 50, the costs for a colorectal cancer screening are also covered each year. Although this type of cancer is particularly common in men and women over the age of 50, younger people should contact a doctor immediately if they have symptoms such as blood in their stool. From the age of 55, two colonoscopies will be taken over by the health insurance company every ten years.

Criticism of the check-ups
Even though experts repeatedly point out the importance, scary few men make use of these offers. The health check-up from 35 years and the cancer screening from 45 years take so far only one in five men. The RKI explained: „Younger men, in particular, are poorly reached by early detection programs.“ However, there are also critical voices about the checkups. The head of the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care, Jürgen Windeler, said at the end of last year about the „Berlin newspaper“, that among other things the palpation after prostate cancer, the regular general check-up and the skin cancer screening under scientific criteria are questionable. And the year before, researchers from the Danish Cochrane Collaboration said that while patients with health checks have been diagnosed with significantly more common diseases, such as high blood pressure or hypercholesterolemia, the „General health checks do not reduce morbidity or mortality, neither overall nor for specific cardiovascular or cancer diseases.“ (Ad)