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Men get routinely ignored, disrespected and misdiagnosed as well. The doctor-patient relationship is adversarial (when facing someone you don't already know), what matters is not what they choose to give you, it's what you can take from them. This is why people who are more assertive and confident will generally do better, as well as people who come in groups.


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"Society doesn’t care about men’s issues."

Please. My wife recently had some health issues due to a condition that primarily affects women, and I went with her to her medical appointments. The level of casual dismissal I saw regarding pain and symptoms from numerous (male and female) doctors was absolutely shocking. While I've certainly had doctors fail to resolve a medical condition before, nothing like the lack of respect I saw had ever accompanied my interactions at a doctor's office. If you genuinely believe that "society doesn't care about men's issues", at least compared to women's issues, you're living in an absolute fantasy world.


It's definitely not only his perception. Most men don't want to talk about their issues publicly with strangers, who might not even be health care professionals.

And I like to just point out that implying that it's just him is both humiliating and toxic.


An aspect of this problem is that society not only teaches people how to behave, but defines expected behavior. If a man defy those expectations and do seek help at a psychiatrist, a documented problem is that he won't be taken serious. Male patients get often too little or no medical support, while female patients suffer from over medication and forced hospitalization.

That is just factually inaccurate. Society cares a lot about male problems. Men have a legitimate complaint that public displays of misandry are tolerated far beyond what is fair, but in terms of on-the-ground outcomes it is hard to point to anything unreasonable going on. At scale anyway, the world is full of local warts.

The main problem men have when it comes to medical outcomes is their absolute refusal to seek help. I can name multiple men I know who died or came close to it because they refused to see a doctor. I intend to go out the same way, for what it is worth. Seems likely that attitude carries over to mental health.


Yeah. I’m sad that men with BPD are recognised so much less... I had a psychiatrist in a big hospital tell me that my diagnosis is wrong because men can’t get BPD.

To whoever downvoted GP: please don’t unless you actually have experience.


Men don't ask for help because nobody cares about them and they can't get good help. They don't expressed their feelings because they get shunned for doing so and are perceived as being weak. And it's not always men who are forcing this gender role upon men -sometimes it's women.

As a general rule, men are much more reluctant to get help with mental illnesses, largely as a direct result of toxic masculinity.

>A sick man deserves contempt, a sick woman deserves attention and caring.

This is unfortunate for men.


Perhaps men aren't comfortable seeking treatment in general. In the Sopranos, Tony is deeply ashamed and embarrassed that he is seeing a therapist. He keeps it secret from his friends and even his family. It's just a show, but I bet a lot of people, men especially with preserving that machismo, operate like that and refuse to seek help with mental health, despite readily going to the doctor for a physical ailment. At least with women there is less of a stigma for talking with a therapist, but the stigma still exists.

In what part of healthcare are men systemically impeded from involvement?

A thing often missed when talking about this, is the reaction from health care when men breaks the gender role and do seek help, they are less believed by health professionals than if a woman was seeking help. It should not be very surprising that people who break gender roles are treated differently, but it has quite impact given the vulnerable situation.

At risk of going Damore, it's because men don't complain enough. Without complaints, other people may not know enough to help those who cannot help themselves.

Men, on the other hand, face criticism that is never applied to women.

Society doesn’t care about men’s issues. 57% of undergraduates are now women yet every resource makes it seem like men are way ahead and tries to bring them down because.001% most powerful are mostly men. It’s okay to mock men constantly and anyone responding back gets demonized.

It's a shitty situation, and it seems all too common for men.

The usual knee jerk response is to blame the men for being unable to communicate effectively.

I think the sad truth is that not everyone is cared about equally, and sometimes it is everyone else's fault.

But it isn't like you can get mad about it. That is just going to push people away and make them bitter toward you.


The worst part of even trying to have a discussion about men's health and issues today is how often it devolves into arguments about male status in society.

If we had more empathy for one another it would be easier to solve the problem instead of arguing about who suffers most.

We all suffer, we should help each other suffer less.


As a woman, men who are focused on stuff like this (beyond basic physical and financial health) scare and repel me.

> men tend to lack perspective and are unable to step back and ask the question "is this peer group worth impressing?"

That's not just a male problem, it's just a different set of peer groups.


It is a tough cognitive dissonance for most people to hold in their minds: men behaving toxically require more emotional support, not less.
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