Feeling stressed or anxious about seeing a doctor is more common than you might think.
While working at a company about a decade ago, some of my colleagues turned their backs on the free annual health screenings.
Strangely, many of them were men of minority races.
This reluctance to seek health advice and medical treatment must be quite prevalent since a government work group was set up in 2021 to focus on improving the health of ethnic minority groups here – which largely means the Malay and Indian communities.
So I read with interest – from a Straits Times article on July 15 – that more from Singapore’s Indian community are now aware of the benefits of preventive health screening.
Separately, it was also reported that 2020 statistics indicated 14.4 per cent of Malays and 14.2 per cent of Indians had diabetes, compared with 8.2 per cent of Chinese.
The main reason my former colleagues shunned health screenings was that doctors would “surely” find something wrong and prescribe medicine they didn’t need.
Doctors, however, believe that many people put off medical appointments because of the fear of “bad news” and not wanting to learn the truth.
Another common reason: denial. These people just don’t believe they could have a problem.
Even when they do, many – especially men – convince themselves their condition will improve on its own.
Dr Chong Yeh Woei, a senior physician in private practice and a former president of the Singapore Medical Association, attributes this to the “Masters of the Universe” syndrome.
He explained that this is because men are programmed by society to be “warriors with our body armour, our weapons to fight and compete in school, in sports, in love, and from careers to business.”
So it comes as a shock that there could be a hole in their body armour, be it a diagnosis of hypertension, diabetes or coronary artery disease.
Dr Chong said: “I noticed that the more successful the man was, the harder such a crisis would be for him. Some successful career women have exhibited such a syndrome as well.”
While there is nothing wrong in perceiving yourselves as strong and capable of handling everything, we should not see going to the doctor as a weakness.
In many instances, it could make us stronger.
By Khush Randhawa
