Peter S: Speaking with health professionals – Benefits of good communication

Peter S
Male
Age at interview: 60
Number of medicines: 18
Cultural background: Anglo-Australian

Peter S strongly recommends from his own experience that other men be more communicative with their doctors.

Sometimes there's self-help groups, such as I've heard about the Men's Shed. They do more than make toys and whatever else; they actually discuss each other's health issues, which is very unusual for men. Men are not prone to disclosing to other men, hey, I've got a problem with a prostate, what do I do? ... Why men are like that I've got no idea; must be some specific secret gene that they've got attached in their brain somewhere. 

But yeah, don't be afraid to go see a doctor. If you're not well, go see a doctor. I mean like when I was told, when I was diagnosed with diabetes, I was told I had the flu. The doctor was a relief doctor so he wasn't really that familiar with me anyway, but it suited me to believe him for a couple of weeks that I had the flu ... yeah sure, okay, everything's good. Whoops, got to go to the toilet again, another drink, another two litres of water down the throat ... no, don't let things go. Lumps and bumps and stuff like that, go see a doctor, seek help. 

Don't be afraid to ask for help. In fact when I got ... so the biggest relief I got was when I was diagnosed with depression, when I knew what was wrong had a name. I could do something about it. Up until then it was just this black horrible well and there was no name for it. I was doing ... God knows what I was doing and so when I was able to put a name to it that immediately made it a lot easier to treat; well depression’s treatable, okay, not a problem, let's go with the flow. It’s not easily treatable; takes a long time, but it's treatable. 

So I say to men if you start to, you know, something out of the ordinary's happening, go see a doctor, talk to the missus or the girlfriend or whoever. They will tell you what you're doing wrong, you know? I mean, when I was in depression, my wife was forever saying I think you need to see a psychiatrist. I said no, no, no, no, no, don't need one. It wasn't until I saw my endocrine guy; he said I think you need to see a psychiatrist. Okay, you've confirmed what [my wife] said, I'll go see a psychiatrist. So no, we're the worst, men are really the worst.

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The Living with multiple medicines project was developed in collaboration with Healthtalk Australia.