‘Crisis in masculinity’ prompts Labour to consider men’s health strategy

Labour is looking at introducing a men’s health strategy to address a “crisis in masculinity” that is costing lives.

The plans could see an expansion in services which offer NHS checks in “men-friendly spaces” – such as sports grounds, pubs and workplaces – alongside efforts to encourage boys and men to be more open about their mental health.

The party is examining strategies rolled out in Ireland and Australia, which have increased male life expectancy, and local schemes in the UK which have offered men health screening in football stadiums.

Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said he felt “enraged” about failures to tackle male health issues – in particular mental health – with suicide the biggest killer of men under the age of 50.

Official data shows men’s life expectancy in the UK falling at a far sharper rate than that of women. It is now at its lowest for more than a decade.

Mr Streeting told The Telegraph: “I think as a country we have been slow to wake up to the fact that I think it’s quite hard to be a young man in today’s society.”

‘Mental ill-health rising’

Issues which had impacted young women – such as being bombarded with body ideals, online – were now affecting men, he said.

“I think lots of young men, particularly working class boys, are struggling in school and worried about their futures. And I think that that’s contributing to a sort of crisis in masculinity, with mental ill-health rising, and suicide being the biggest single biggest killer of young men under 50,” he said.

“When I heard that statistic, I nearly fell off my chair – it is shocking.”

Last year the Government published the first women’s health strategy, with promises to boost access to hormone replacement therapy, improve the availability of fertility treatment and offer more help for those who suffer miscarriage and stillbirth.

Mr Streeting said he was glad to see efforts to improve healthcare for women, but said more needed to be done for men.

He said: “I have been very outspoken about the fact that it takes seven and a half years for women to receive a diagnosis for a common condition like endometriosis, and outraged that a universal experience like menopause is still treated as if it’s a rare condition affecting an alien species.

“I feel just as enraged about failures in men’s health, whether that’s the mental health crisis that’s taking young men’s lives too soon, or the rates of preventable death in areas like prostate cancer and testicular cancer.”

“I will bring that focus to both men’s health and women’s health to government,” he said, confirming that this meant a men’s health strategy was under consideration.

Three in four suicides are by men, with the highest rates among those aged between 45 and 64.

Inspiration from overseas

Mr Streeting said he had been inspired by his visit to Australia in December, in which he met representatives from the Movember movement, which started in Melbourne and raises awareness of men’s health issues, such as prostate cancer, testicular cancer and suicide.

The shadow minister has already pledged “to reverse the rising tide of lives lost to suicide” with an expansion of 8,500 mental health professionals and mental health support offered in every school. A pledge to double the number of scanners in hospitals will form part of efforts to improve the diagnosing of prostate cancer, under Labour’s plans.

The party is examining the men’s health strategies in Australia and Ireland, and voluntary schemes in the UK to tackle male mental health and isolation.

Among them are Men’s Sheds — another movement born in Australia – which has expanded into Ireland and the UK in recent years. The clubs bring men together for group activities such as gardening, metalwork and carpentry.

The Australian strategy also sets out a “life course” approach to ensure boys and men are talking about mental and physical health from an early age.

Inquiry into falling life expectancy

The Commons Health and Social Care Committee is carrying out an inquiry into men’s health, which is considering why life expectancy for men has fallen at a faster rate than women’s since the pandemic.

Evidence from the Men’s Health Forum, a registered charity, shows three quarters of premature deaths from cardiovascular disease are among men. The charity said men were 43 per cent more likely to die from cancer, 26 per cent more likely to have type 2 diabetes and constituted 66 per cent of alcohol-related deaths.

Research has found men with prostate cancer are being diagnosed late and suffering avoidable deaths because they have to fight to be taken seriously by doctors.

The all-party Parliamentary group for issues affecting men and boys has called on the NHS to take cancer testing vans to sports grounds and building sites to tackle the “crisis” of early deaths. Pilot NHS schemes have already seen lung X-rays offered at football grounds and sports centres.

Data from the Office for National Statistics shows that since the pandemic, male life expectancy in the UK has fallen by 38 weeks, while for women it has fallen by 23 weeks. This brings life expectancy down to the lowest levels for more than a decade.

The figures for 2020 to 2022 show boys born today will live for an average of 78.6 years and women 82.6 years, down from 79.3 years and 83 years respectively for children born between 2017 and 2019.

Since 2008, when Ireland introduced its men’s health strategy, the life expectancy for men has increased by four years from 77 (2007) to 81 in 2021. It has since fallen by a year. Over the same period, UK male life expectancy went from 77.3 in 2006-8 to 79.3 in 2018-20, since when it has fallen.