The GP specialises in primary prevention to identify early silent risk factors in killer diseases, and says the difficulty is that men don\u2019t see the downsides that he sees. \u201cNobody ever comes and says, \u2018Thank you for saving me from a heart attack I never had!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
And he advises: \u201cLook after yourself now and do something that your 80-year-old self is going to thank you for.\u201d<\/p>\n Young men (18-40)<\/p>\n 1. Mental health<\/p>\n Nearly one in eight men experience depression or anxiety, but less than half receive treatment.<\/p>\n \u201cMen generally find it difficult to seek help \u2013 they can perceive it as a bit of a weakness,\u201d explains Coyne. \u201cNot helped by the pervasive online wellness trend of stoic philosophy, a side effect of which is men not wanting to burden anyone else with their problems.\u201d<\/p>\n But asking for help is the first step in overcoming depression.<\/p>\n Symptoms: Men express mental health struggles differently to women \u2013 showing outward signs such as anger or escaping into their work. \u201cEarly signs are not wanting to see friends, or not being interested in activities they used to enjoy, lacking motivation or appetite or not sleeping. Overeating can also be a factor, as can substance misuse,\u201d says Coyne.<\/p>\n And he warns, \u201cBecause men often mask how they\u2019re feeling, when they present with low mood or feeling anxious, these are more severe symptoms.\u201d<\/p>\n Health checks: Men should seek out their GP in the first instance. \u201cHaving a relationship with a primary care provider opens up lots of treatments \u2013 from medication to talking therapy and lifestyle advice. Sometimes, small tweaks can make a massive difference.\u201d<\/p>\n 2. Testicular cancer<\/p>\n Testicular cancer is more common in younger men. One of Coyne\u2019s patients is a testicular cancer survivor, and he says, \u201cMy patient bravely asked his mates, \u2018Do any of you ever not ejaculate?\u2019 And they were like, \u2018No, no, mate.\u2019 That prompted him to check himself and he found a lump.<\/p>\n \u201cTesticular cancer often has really good outcomes, but the earlier it\u2019s caught, the treatment can be more targeted and less severe, which is why the self-checks are important.\u201d<\/p>\n Symptoms: \u201cUrinary symptoms and any kind of sexual dysfunctions such as problems with ejaculation or getting an erection, and obviously finding a lump. But by the time people get these secondary effects, the cancer is going to be a little bit more advanced.\u201d<\/p>\n Health checks: \u201cThere isn\u2019t a screening programme, so it\u2019s very important for men to check themselves regularly,\u201d says Coyne. \u201cI ask my patients to check their testicles at least once a quarter, usually in the bath or the shower.\u201d<\/p>\n Middle aged men (40-50+)<\/p>\n 3. Cardiovascular disease<\/p>\n \u201cMen typically get an earlier onset of coronary disease than women,\u201d explains Coyne. \u201cMen are more predisposed to being apple-shaped \u2013 which is visceral fat, or fat around the organs. Visceral fat is linked with higher rates of both diabetes and cardiovascular disease, higher rates of certain cancers, and also fatty liver disease.\u201d<\/p>\n Symptoms: \u201cHigh blood pressure, diabetes and cardiovascular disease is asymptomatic until it gets very, very late,\u201d he says. \u201cUnfortunately the first presentation of heart disease is often with a heart attack. That\u2019s why young men need to engage with their long-term health.\u201d<\/p>\n Health checks: The NHS offers free \u201cmidlife MOT\u201d checks to adults aged 40 to 74 to check blood pressure, cholesterol, and BMI and waist circumference which all assess cardiovascular risk.<\/p>\n 4. Bowel cancer<\/p>\n Most bowel cancers begin as small, non-cancerous growths on the inner lining of the bowel wall, called polyps. If diagnosed early, more than 90% of people survive for five years or more. If men delay until symptoms are severe, survival rates drop to 10%.<\/p>\n Coyne explains: \u201cVery often the lead time for a polyp to become a cancer is about 10 years, so it can be picked up long before it becomes a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n Symptoms: Any changes in bowel habits that last for three weeks or more must be reported to a GP. Also blood in stools, bloating or tummy pain, or a constant sensation of needing to go to the loo. Unexplained weight loss and extreme tiredness are also red flags.<\/p>\n Health checks: A home test kit called a Faecal Immunochemical Test (FIT) to screen bowel cancer is automatically sent every two years to everyone aged 54 to 74 (being lowered to 50 in England) to catch early signs of cancer before symptoms show.<\/p>\n \u201cIt really saves lives because the FIT test picks up blood in the stool,\u201d says Coyne.<\/p>\n Older men (50-65+)<\/p>\n 5. Prostate cancer<\/p>\n Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the UK. Typically, it grows very slowly, and men can have it for years without realising, but some cases are very aggressive.<\/p>\n Coyne knows the risks only too well. \u201cA friend and colleague of mine was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer which has metastasised. He put it down to aches and pains because he was getting a bit older, did sport and was working really hard. The key message here is not to ignore things.\u201d<\/p>\n Symptoms: \u201cProstate cancer can be asymptomatic until quite a late stage but some early symptoms will be urinary problems \u2013 needing to pass urine more frequently, an urgency to go, getting up during the night to go, having a poor stream, passing blood in the urine, and blood in the semen as well.\u201d<\/p>\n He adds, \u201cSome of these symptoms can also occur with benign enlargement of the prostate.\u201d<\/p>\n Health checks: \u201cThe main test for prostate cancer is a digital rectal exam,\u201d says Coyne. \u201cBut PSA test screening is also available. However, it does create a lot of false positives, which is why it\u2019s not nationwide. There is targeted screening for men over 45 who carry the BRCA2 mutation, however only a very small proportion of BRCA carriers have been identified, which means many high-risk men miss early detection.<\/p>\n \u201cMen over 50 can also request it, and Black or Afro Caribbean men over 45 can ask for it.\u201d<\/p>\n 6. Abdominal aortic aneurysms<\/p>\n \u201cAortic aneurysms are a dangerous bulge or swelling in the lower part of the aorta, which is the main blood vessel that carries blood from the heart to the rest of the body \u2013 and are far more common in men than women,\u201d explains Coyne.<\/p>\n Symptoms: \u201cThis is also a silent condition because an aortic aneurysm usually has no symptoms at all. But if an aortic aneurysm bursts, it causes massive \u2013 often fatal \u2013 internal bleeding.\u201d<\/p>\n Health checks: \u201cThe NHS offers a screening programme for all men from age 65. It\u2019s a very easy, quick non-invasive ultrasound scan of the abdomen. They measure the size of the aorta and take it from there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This Movember, men should do something now that their older selves will thank them for \u2013 get their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":659355,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[752,24276,3578,103,86040,61,60,351,410,279216,345,184742,1577],"class_list":["post-659354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-advice","tag-bowel-cancer","tag-cardiovascular-disease","tag-health","tag-health-and-wellbeing","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mens-health","tag-mental-health","tag-movember","tag-prostate-cancer","tag-testicular-cancer","tag-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=659354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/659355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"My](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792416012_360_PBQW3CVEZFHKLILFK2L3PJWQH4.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"Review:](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/ZEFHQDKAWVCUFOPB65SXWZWU2Q.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Some](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Z7ORBXWTA5I6NK4ZHCLATUZ2JM.jpg\")
Some your men struggle with their mental health (Alamy Stock Photo) <\/p>\n![\"2YNWAX6](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/LFAN4PQRXFOMLDOAYTL5LNAYHQ.jpg\")
2YNWAX6 A man stands with focus on his abdomen, highlighting an unhealthy waistline that exceeds men\u2019s health standards. The impact of excess weight and empha (Alamy Stock Photo) <\/p>\n![\"2YNWATP](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/MF3DYBZF3NKGZPRB73LMOYU344.jpg\")
2YNWATP Man grimaces in pain, holding his groin area with both hands, symbolizing discomfort from a health issue like gonorrhea. The image highlights men\u2019s he (Alamy Stock Photo) <\/p>\n