More importantly, they are not urged to undergo the simple digital examination which can detect prostrate disease. According to several reports, the prostrate digital exam is the test most frequently avoided or over-looked in a general health examination. Every man over the age of forty should be getting a prostate examination at least every three years. Men over fifty should be examined every year. The result is hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths every decade.
Rectal cancer is also prevalent among men and suffers from the same lack of early detection.
Similarly, recent studies show that men are far less likely to do self-examinations or seek tests for melanoma and other deadly forms of skin cancer. Heart disease presents a similar picture. As noted above, heart disease is the leading killer of men and kills men prematurely at many times the rate that it kills women. The National Institutes of Health and others have found that over three-quarters of all heart disease is related to diet and stress. Yet, studies show that men are far less likely to show concern for their diets and for the stress levels in their lives than are women.