More than half of Irish men are reluctant to attend their family doctor, according to new research.
The study, presented yesterday at a conference in Wexford, found men associated going to their doctor with weakness.
They were fearful the doctor would find something wrong with them, send them to hospital or examine their private parts.
The findings, based on a survey of over 570 men, are contained in Getting Inside Men's Health. It was compiled by the South Eastern Health Board.
"One of the most important challenges facing men's health must be to reverse the paradigm that going to the doctor represents failure or personal weakness in men," the report said.
It also found one in five men would have difficulty talking to their GP about stress or a mental health issue.
"The continued stigma that is perceived to be associated with mental health issues, in particular, appears to prompt some men to self-medicate with alcohol, and/or to resort to violent behaviour, rather than to run the risk of being consigned to a lower status masculinity".
Some 25 per cent of the men who consumed alcohol were found to drink to excess - more than 21 units a week, while 34 per cent reported weekly binge drinking - having six drinks or more at any one time. Among 18-29 year old men, 51 per cent reported weekly binge drinking.
The authors found those drinking to excess did not perceive themselves as drinking too much. "The data in this study highlights the urgent need to challenge the drink culture that is endemic in Irish society".
In other findings, one in three men reported feeling regularly/constantly stressed, three out of four men aged 50 and over reported never having had a digital rectal examination and just one in seven men aged 20-29 reported practising testicular self examinations monthly. Less well off and less well educated men were significantly less likely to look after their health.
The report called for action on men's health. It recommends a national policy for men's health be developed, that men's health be placed on the political agenda and that health services be made as convenient as possible with flexible opening hours. And it recommends that "counter-advertising measures are considered to challenge the association that currently exists between alcohol and prominent displays of masculinity".