Review

Making men better

The WHICH guide to Men’s Health
Steve Carroll
WHICH Books, 1994, £9.99

Having started the first Well Man clinic in Liverpool several years ago we are only too well aware that men put health way down their agenda. An audit of our clinic found that non-attenders either thought they were fine or would explain: ‘I’m hoping to come when I’ve lost some weight’ or ‘I’ll come when I’ve cracked the ciggies’.

This book may be for those who can’t pluck up the courage to come. It is a fascinating book including chapters such as Father’s guide to survival and Sexual health and awareness.

However we can’t see many of those men actually sitting down and reading it after tea! It is very detailed with quite small print and the best place for it may be on the shelves of the practice library — for the men who do get into the surgery — to browse through, or borrow for reference. Certainly the chapter on fatherhood is excellent, though slightly marred by the introduction, about how important it is to give up smoking, which may put men off reading the later, very pertinent parts about emotions. There’s lots of useful information about men’s anatomy and all the problems they can suffer from and we feel that people benefit from knowing as much about their bodies as possible. There is also an excellent chapter on stress and how to cope with it.

So buy it for your practice library, but not for the Christmas stocking.