The men’s health crisis that no one wants to talk about

Date: 7 April 2026

Men are living shorter lives than women and facing higher risks of cancer, heart disease and suicide—yet they are far less likely to seek help, raising urgent questions about how we understand and support men’s health.

By Chimnonso Onyekwelu LLB, lawyer and ANH researcher; Rob Verkerk PhD, founder, executive & scientific director, ANH 

Come on, chaps: it’s time to own this one and do something about it! 

Men are dying younger than women, engaging in health services later when opportunities for prevention and early intervention have already narrowed. They face a 37% higher risk of dying from cancer and a 75% higher risk of premature death from heart disease, while globally, they live several years less than women on average.

The crisis is especially stark in relation to mental health. In the UK, roughly three-quarters of all suicide deaths are among men, while in the United States suicide rates in 2023 were almost four times greater than those of women. Yet despite these troubling realities, studies (e.g., aqui e aqui) consistently show that men are up seek medical care significantly less than women.

The reasons are often deeply personal. Many men have been conditioned to cope quietly with pain, uncertainty, or emotional distress. Shame, embarrassment, fear of stigma, reluctance to appear vulnerable, and the instinct not to burden others can all stop men from speaking about their health. Too often, silence delays action until problems are harder to reverse.

That’s not all. When men do seek help, men are often attracted to ‘quick-fix’ pharmaceutical solutions—that typically do little to resolve underlying causes of disease. Much of the decision-making that results in a drug being taken, whether over the counter, over the internet or following a prescription, occurs without properly informed consent. Longer-term consequences of the prescription are rarely discussed openly with prescribing physicians.   Information about alternative options and potential side effects (that comprise key elements of the information necessary for informed consent to be exercised) tends to be even less well assimilated when drugs are purchased from the internet or over-the-counter sources.

Certain treatments have been linked to adverse effects, including sexual dysfunction, cognitive difficulties, mood disturbances and dependency. Others, such as steroid-based therapies, may contribute to hormonal disruption, cardiovascular strain, and metabolic imbalance.

In this article, we examine the underreported but growing crisis in men’s health: the conditions affecting men, the medications commonly prescribed to manage them, and the unintended consequences that can follow. It also explores why these risks often remain overlooked and considers practical ways to support and rebuild men’s health beyond simply masking symptoms with drugs.

The growing reliance on medication in men’s health

In some parts of the world, men’s health is belatedly receiving some attention. In December 2025, the UK government published its first Men’s Health Strategy for England, recognising the need for earlier engagement, prevention, and better support for men to access care before problems become entrenched.

For example, in November 2025, the UK launched its first national Men’s Health Strategy.  This has brought issues like mental health and prostate cancer into sharper focus. Greater awareness, improved diagnosis, and wider treatment options have encouraged more men to seek help. But alongside this progress sits a clear trend: a growing reliance on drugs, not much of a focus on prevention, and precious little emphasis on nutrition or complementary, let alone alternative, approaches.

Research shows that men are entering certain treatment pathways in greater numbers. In England, prescribing for erectile dysfunction increased by 110% between 2009 and 2019.

Testosterone therapy has risen by over 300% in some countries, and interest in drugs like finasteride used to treat hair loss and prostate enlargement have increased dramatically through its active marketing that often frames complex health issues as if they were isolated deficiencies requiring a quick pharmaceutical fix (read on for further discussion on finasteride).

Yet over time, concerns accumulated around sexual dysfunction, mood changes, and, in some men, persistent symptoms after discontinuation. In 2025, the European Medicines Agency confirmed suicidal thoughts as a side effect of finasteride tablets and reinforced warnings that sexual dysfunction may contribute to mood changes, including suicidal ideation. That doesn’t mean every man will experience serious harm. But it does mean that informed consent should include far more information—including the risk of suicidal ideation when it applies—than is currently typically the case.

The trouble is that these treatments are treated as routine, but their effects are far from trivial. They typically  act on multiple, interacting systems in the body, influencing hormones, vascular function, brain chemistry, inflammation, immunity, metabolism and mood. Some men do experience symptomatic relief. But symptom relief is not the same as restoring health. Too often, underlying drivers such as poor metabolic health, inactivity, sleep disruption, chronic stress, alcohol, smoking, environmental exposures, or relationship strain are left insufficiently explored. The result can be a treadmill of symptom management rather than a genuine rebuilding of health.

When treatment creates new problems: Case studies in men’s health

The risks discussed so far are not theoretical. They are reflected in real treatments used daily across men’s health. For instance, Finasteride, widely used for targeting dihydrotestosterone (DHT), was first approved in 1992 after being hailed as a breakthrough in treating hair loss and prostate conditions. Its mechanism appears quite simple: it blocks the enzyme 5α-reductase which converts testosterone into dihydrotestosterone [DHT]), the latter being associated both with prostate enlargement and premature hair loss.

Yet as early 1996, clinical trials such as the PROSPECT study were already reporting higher rates of sexual dysfunction in users. Over time, more men began reporting symptoms that did not resolve after stopping treatment, including sexual dysfunction, cognitive impairments, and mood disturbances. By 2011, this cluster was termed post-finasteride syndrome (PFS). Still, not until 2022 did the FDA formally strengthen warnings to include depression and suicidal ideation—after nearly three decades of use. Think tobacco smoking and how long it took for authorities to recognise the link with cancer.

This pattern is not confined to one medication. You can find similar trends across a wide range of men’s health issues. Treatments designed to correct one issue can quietly disrupt other systems in the body. Antidepressants, commonly prescribed for mood disorders, have been linked to sexual dysfunction, sometimes persisting even after treatment ends. In 2024, Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration updated warnings on persistent sexual dysfunction for SSRIs and SNRIs, with reported cases including erectile dysfunction, reduced genital sensation, and weakened orgasm persisting for 12 months to 3.5 years after discontinuation. For men already struggling with mood, intimacy, or self-worth, this can deepen the burden rather than resolve it.

Pain medication tells a similar story. Long-term opioid use can suppress the hormonal axis and contribute to low testosterone, reduced libido, fatigue, and sexual dysfunction. Recent review data suggest opioid-induced androgen deficiency in men may affect anywhere from 20% to 80% of users depending on the opioid, duration of use, age, and the definition applied. Add the well-known risk of dependence, and what begins as relief can quietly become another chronic health problem. Studies suggest up to 40% of chronic users develop dependence. What begins as relief can quietly turn into reliance. An issue known about only too well to health authorities (aqui e aqui) and born out by the oxycontin scandal.

Hormonal treatments add a further layer of complexity. Anabolic steroid use may help appropriately diagnosed hypogonadal men, but it isn’t a benign lifestyle enhancer despite it often being promoted as a solution for fatigue or low libido. It has been linked to increased cardiovascular risks, including heart attacks and heart failure. Psychiatric medications are equally culpable. A recent review found that nearly 90% of commonly used psychotropic drugs are linked to metabolic changes, such as weight gain, diabetes and heart related issues.

Erectile dysfunction, for example, should not automatically be treated as a stand-alone problem. A growing cardiovascular literature—something traditional systems of medicine such as Ayurveda and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) have recognised for hundreds if not thousands of years—suggests it can act as an early marker of wider health problems such as vascular disease, often appearing before a major cardiovascular event. In other words, suffering erectile dysfunction should be seen as an alarm bell that goes well beyond simply having an impact on a person’s sex life—it should be an early warning for a systemic problem capable of yielding serious disease—something Viagra and other drugs are incapable of averting.

The real concern is not just the product itself, but the growing tendency to medicalise conditions like reduced libido, persistent fatigue (“tiredness-all-the-time”), low mood, or mid-life hormonal or mood changes without a thorough search for upstream or underlying drivers or causes.

The irony is clear: treatments meant to restore one aspects of a man’s health can, in some cases, have a counter-productive effect, creating new and lasting imbalances in the body that lead to downstream disease. This is the drug treadmill Big Pharma has become so reliant on; while it works well for the drug manufacturers, the net benefits for users are often limited.

let’s face it: if you deny the existence of any alternatives (the standard line of Big Pharma and medics whose first line treatment involves drug prescription), why look elsewhere—and why ask for anything different—especially if what you’re looking for is a quick, technological fix?

Why adverse drug effects in men’s health often go unnoticed

A major part of the problem begins with silence. Men are less likely to report symptoms, particularly when they involve sexual function, mood, or cognition– areas often tied to embarrassment or stigma. Evidence supports this pattern: one large pharmacovigilance study found that 89% of adverse drug reactions are reported by women, not men. A major part of this problem begins with silence. Men are often less likely to report symptoms—especially when they involve sexual function, mood, cognition, or fertility—because these are areas bound up with embarrassment, identity, and stigma. Symptoms may be written off as ageing, stress, burnout, or ‘just life’, meaning potential drug-related effects are never recognised, investigated, or formally reported

Even when symptoms are reported, the system itself has limitations. Clinical trials which are the ‘foundation’ of drug approval aren’t designed to capture everything. They are shorter, involve healthier participants, and often under-represent more complex patients as seen in rela life. One analysis found that only 46% of published trial data reported adverse effects, compared with 95% in corresponding unpublished data. Another study showed that many harmful effects only emerge later, outside the original trial period. Separate post-marketing research found that 32% of novel therapeutics approved by the FDA between 2001 and 2010 were later affected by a major post-market safety event. That is stark reminder that safety profiles are often incomplete at launch. The take home? Beware of novel therapeutics claimed as “safe”.

Outside controlled trial settings, the picture is even more complex. Many patients would not qualify for clinical trials in the first place, with one large study showing up to 91% of people with multiple conditions are excluded. Add to this fragmented care, where symptoms are treated separately rather than as a whole, and it becomes easier to see how adverse effects slip through unnoticed or unlinked to the very treatments meant to help.

Rethinking men’s health: Beyond symptom suppression

When men struggle in silence or rely solely on medication to cope, the effects often extend beyond the individual. While drugs can help, they can also carry consequences that are neither fully understood (especially when involving multiple drug s and theirinteractions) or openly discussed with medical doctors, who—commonly—have neither the available time nor the training to be address underlying causes of disease.

What is needed now is a shift: more honest conversations, better awareness of risks, access to health professionals that understand the social, metabolic, physical, psychological and other determinants of ill health. Men should feel able to ask questions, weigh options, and take an active role in decisions about their bodies, not simply be given quick fixes.

Real progress lies in regenerating health, not just managing symptoms.

If men’s health policy focuses only on better access to diagnosis and treatment, but still neglects prevention, nutrition, environmental exposures, and informed choice, it will simply produce earlier prescribing rather than better health

Simple but powerful steps, such as those below, can have lasting effects on hormonal balance, mental wellbeing, reducing what has become known as ‘social disintegration drift‘, and overall resilience.

• Changing what, how and when you eat
• Prioritising sleep and recovery
• Reducing sitting time
• Staying physically active, particularly outside, in nature
• Managing stress more intentionally
• Rebuilding and nurturing strong, preferably non-digital, social connections
• Reducing screen-driven time and isolation

When men are better informed and supported to take an active role in their health, the goal shifts from dependency toward lasting balance and sustainable health creation and wellbeing. This is how a stronger, healthier future for men’s and societal health is built.

>>> Discover Reset Eating from the ANH team, your science-based guide to healthy eating that supports balanced nutrition—whatever your dietary preferences.