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Men's health, without the wait

A short list of numbers, and the things men rarely raise.

Score my health, freeWhat my age is screened for

Five numbers

None of them announce themselves. Each has a free tool behind it.

1Blood pressure

No symptoms until it has already done damage. A cuff is the only way to know.

2Blood sugar

Caught in the prediabetes window it is usually reversible. Missed, it is not.

3Cholesterol

One panel tells you more about the next thirty years than any symptom will.

4Waist

Fat around the middle behaves differently from fat anywhere else. Measure the waist, not the scale.

5Sleep

Snoring plus daytime sleepiness is a medical finding, not a personality trait.

By decade

The list does not get longer with age so much as it changes shape.

20s and 30s

A testicular self-check once a month. Blood pressure every couple of years. A baseline blood sugar and cholesterol so you have something to compare to later. Fertility, if you are trying.

Testicular self-checksWhat a sperm test measures

40s

Blood pressure yearly. Cholesterol and HbA1c on a schedule. Any new erectile difficulty gets a heart workup, not only a prescription. Waist measured honestly.

Erectile difficulty is a heart questionCholesterol and heart risk

50s

Bowel screening when it is offered, and it has the worst take-up of any screen. The PSA conversation, with both sides of it. Sleep apnea if you snore.

The stool test most people skipWhat a high PSA does not mean

60s and beyond

Keep the screens going. Add the adult vaccines nobody reminds you about, strength work to stay independent, and hearing.

Your checkup schedule by ageAdult vaccines you might be missing

The ones men rarely raise

These come up at the end of an appointment about something else, usually a year late.

Hair loss

One kind recedes and continues. The other sheds and grows back. Only one responds to treatment, and only early.

Snoring and daytime sleepiness

Together they are a medical finding, not a personality trait, and they sit behind years of tiredness blamed on work.

Three more, opened when you want them

Testicles, erections and fertility. Behind a tap because a phone screen is often not private, not because any of it is embarrassing.

A lump, or a testicle that has changed

Most are cysts, fluid or veins. The one that matters is firm and painless, and painless is the part men misread as reassuring.

Erectile difficulty

Those arteries are narrow enough to complain years before the heart does. New difficulty after 40 deserves a blood pressure, sugar and cholesterol check.

Trouble conceiving

A male factor is involved in about half of couples, and the man is usually tested last. It is a sample in a cup.

Nothing here is a diagnosis. This guide is health education. It cannot examine you, and it does not replace your own doctor's judgment about your case.

Also worth reading

Low testosterone results, explainedSleep apnea, and the signs people missVisceral fat: why the middle mattersType 2 diabetes, early signsLow mood in men, and getting helpA private drink checkThe quit counterYour health age

Common questions

What health checks should men have, and how often?
Blood pressure from your twenties, every year or two, and yearly from forty. Cholesterol and HbA1c on a schedule your doctor sets, earlier if a parent had heart trouble or diabetes. Bowel screening when your program offers it. A monthly self-check of the testicles from your teens. Everything else is driven by symptoms or family history rather than by a calendar.
Why do men see a doctor less often?
Surveys keep finding the same reasons: nobody ever taught them what to look for, the fear of finding something, and embarrassment about the examination itself. None of them are foolish, and all three cost time. Time is the only variable that changes the outcome in most of the conditions on this page.
Is erectile difficulty a heart problem?
Often it is the first sign of one. The arteries supplying the penis are one to two millimeters across against three to four for the coronary arteries, so the same narrowing shows up there first. Studies following men over time have found erectile difficulty preceding a cardiac event by roughly three to five years. That window is the useful part.
Should I get my testosterone tested?
Only if the picture fits. Low testosterone usually arrives with reduced interest in sex, low energy, low mood and lost muscle, rather than as a single symptom. It has to be a morning sample, because the level follows a daily rhythm and an afternoon draw can read low in a man whose level is normal.
Does a PSA test mean I have prostate cancer?
No. A raised PSA is far more often a large prostate, an infection, or recent cycling or ejaculation than a cancer. The test has real benefits and real harms, both worth hearing before you decide, which is why it is a conversation rather than a routine tick.
What is the single highest-yield thing a man can do?
Stop smoking if you smoke. Nothing else on the list comes close. After that: get the blood pressure into range, move most days, and go early rather than late with anything new. The men who do best are not the ones with the best numbers, they are the ones who came in the first year rather than the third.
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