"I have prostatitis": what every man should pay attention to

Alice Smahina

Our bodies are incredibly complex mechanisms that need quality nutrients (food, water, and air) to grow, function, and recover. And like any other mechanism, the body requires regular maintenance, including a medical one, so that it lasts a long time and functions well throughout life.

Neither men nor women like to get sick. But the paradox is that not everyone is ready to turn to specialists. Many people, feeling failures in their "mechanism" not only don't go to the doctors, preferring to cope on their own but aren't even ready to admit to themselves they need it. And while taboo topics on women's health are becoming less common, men are still very reluctant to talk about their own health problems.

According to statistics, men see doctors about 20 percent less often than women. Men tend not to pay attention to the symptoms of the disease, blame everything on work overload, stress, and fatigue.

Doctors name several reasons men refuse to visit a doctor, among them:

• fear of losing masculinity, becoming weak and vulnerable;
• fear of finding out that they're not all right;
• busy work schedule;
• the need to spend time on appointments, queues, and examinations;
• expensive treatment;
• the probability of appointing a digital rectal examination.

Men are used to being strong and steadfast. It's required of them by society, and sometimes, unfortunately, family and relatives. Often men suffer from pain, cope with illnesses on the go, losing precious time, just because it's not a matter for a "real man" to be weak, wander around the clinics, agree to "humiliating" manipulations. As a result, the body resists the disease for some time, but when its reserves are depleted, the disease begins to develop rapidly, often inevitably. Perhaps it's this male fear of becoming "inferior" that is one of the main reasons for their shorter life expectancy compared to women.