Men in the UK die, on average, four years earlier than women. They account for three-quarters of all suicide deaths and are more likely to smoke, be overweight and die in accidents, violence or drug overdoses. Prostate cancer remains the most common male cancer, causing about 12,000 deaths annually. A public consultation on prostate cancer screening opened last week, following expert advice against introducing a national programme.
The new men’s health strategy for England, launched by Health Secretary Wes Streeting, is therefore a welcome step. Just as a women’s health approach helps target female-specific risks, a targeted men’s health framework can better address male health challenges.
But the key question is whether the overstretched healthcare system can realistically deliver what the strategy promises. Without adequate capacity, the strategy may offer useful language and summaries, but little real progress.
The plan allocates £300m for community health projects in 2025–26. While helpful for local innovations in primary care, this funding is too limited to drive national change. More impactful could be the upcoming review of the GP funding formula, which may shift resources toward poorer areas with greater health needs. The strategy also commits to improved data collection, broken down by sex and other characteristics, to highlight risks facing specific groups, such as ethnic minority men and gay men.
Other measures include a campaign promoting walking and running, building on the success of the NHS Couch to 5k app. The government will support peer and lived-experience networks in drug and alcohol treatment and in cancer care. Employment-focused pilot programmes under the Get Britain Working strategy may especially benefit young men, who are more likely than young women to be out of education, work or training.
The newly formed Men’s Health Academic Network will provide expert guidance. It faces a long list of complex issues raised in the strategy, including the mental-health effects of social media, potential links between pornography and sexual dysfunction and evidence that men generally have lower “health literacy” than women.
Improving men’s health, including better detection of male cancers, is sound public policy and could appeal to voters. A £42m prostate cancer screening trial is already under way. But the strategy must not distract from deeper systemic problems. Lengthy NHS waiting lists and the fallout from an expensive reorganisation undermine care for men with addiction, cancer and other conditions—just as they do for everyone else.
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