

The whole men’s barrier to seeking care think has gone on way longer than the grindset attitude of late. Any doctor or nurse will tell you “My wife/child made me come” are scary words to hear from a man in the ER. I think a big aspect is related to the grindset attitude though, but is deeper and more indolent. It’s that men are often primary/majority breadwinners in a household lots of the time, and on top of the social stigma of seeking care (independence, weakness), you make more money if you set your health on the backburner. The benefits of primary care are not often easy to conceptualize (you never think about a stroke you didn’t have) and this diminishes the importance of regular primary care vs acute care for illness and injury. It’s important to note that this is a generational trend in both sexes, healthy, young folks are less likely to have a regular primary care physician as compared to older people or children.
I’m back home after spending a month on what is essentially an extended job interview/training opportunity at a hospital in another part of the country i’m considering moving to after I graduate medical school. It was fun, and I enjoyed it, but I’m so glad to sleep in my own bed. Now to begin the process of finalizing what I wanna be when I grow up, it’s agonizing (but exciting too, tbh) to finally have to make a choice that really will decide at least the next few years, but ultimately the rest of my career.