Where do our sons learn not to go to the doctors? Does that now create a social burden?

[Xithras]

90. High blood pressure among young men is uncommon.

The problem here is threefold:

1) Health problems that actually afflict young men already cause them to seek medical attention, because they generally have other symptoms that would be recognized and addressed. The numbers show that young men DO already seek treatment when they have a medical issue, but simply avoid checkups when they don't. Because routine checkups aren't going to catch things like cancer anyway, the health issues that they WOULD catch are primarily issues that are already being caught under the current model.

2) Problems like high cholesterol and high blood pressure are far less common in young men than older men. While there would unquestionably be some young men diagnosed who are currently slipping through the cracks, the cost savings from treating them would be trivial in contrast to the costs required to scan the vast majority of other young men who would have absolutely no problems.

3) Any doctor will tell you that young men generally don't follow treatment plans for non-acute medical conditions anyway. If a doctor tells a 25 year old that he needs to stop eating cheeseburgers and start taking blood pressure medications in order to avoid health problems at 40, the odds are virtually certain that he will fail to follow the doctors advice and treatment plan. I know that, if my doctor had told me to quit eating cheeseburgers at 25, I'd have done little more than laugh. Doctors aren't generally seen as authority figures.

And 40 seemed like a lifetime away.