A new men’s health clinic has been launched in Dublin with a mission to tackle the worrying statistic that men consistently die younger than women.
Dr Gavin Keane, founder of the clinic, is encouraging men, especially those over 40, to get regular check-ups to uncover early disease before any long-term damage is done.
One of the more stark statistics is that men die earlier the world over, including Ireland, dying on average more than fours years younger than women.
Dr Keane is a general practitioner with a keen interest in men’s health and says that this fact has stuck with him since he first because aware of it. He believes if men went to a doctor to get checked every year or two, the statistic would change.
Many of the conditions that men die from are preventable or are at least treatable, when discovered at an early stage.
The most common causes of death amongst men include high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high blood sugar and prostate cancer.
Speaking about this, Dr Keane said: ‘‘Those four diseases have a couple of things in common. First, they all do their dirty work in the background, unnoticed, for years until they have literally taken years off your life.
GP attendance
"The second thing is that when uncovered early, they can all be treated very successfully. For that to happen, men need to get themselves checked and they must get to their GP to do so.’’
Dr Keane set up MensHealth.ie, an online General Practice service specifically for men, during the lockdown in 2020 in response to the huge impact that Covid-19 had on GP services.
While the Covid-19 outbreak has not helped GP attendance among males, it is not a new problem. Low GP attendance has been linked to the fact that men do not feel comfortable talking about their health.
‘‘There are lots of reasons why men do not attend their GPs. The biggest obstacle is getting them in the door in the first place. Men don't go to the doctor, so I wanted to bring the doctor to them. The goal of MensHealth.ie was to make attending their GP as easy as possible for guys,” he said.
Dr Keane’s new men’s health clinic is based on Donnybrook in Dublin. After the success of the online venture, he thought it was a natural extension of the overall goal - to get Irish men living longer, healthier lives.
To contact the clinic for an appointment, visit MensHealth.ie or call 01 269 3921
