Men’s Health

Men’s health covers conditions specific to male anatomy, such as erectile dysfunction and bladder or prostate symptoms, together with the conditions men in Canada are more likely to be diagnosed with late: heart and blood vessel disease, metabolic conditions and the effects of smoking. This page is a way in to the specific conditions.

Conditions in this area

• Erectile dysfunction: ongoing difficulty getting or keeping an erection. In a Canadian primary care study of men aged 40 to 88, about half reported some degree of it.
• Nocturia: waking at night to pass urine, affecting 9.1 per cent of adults in Canada and 23.8 per cent of adults over 65 when defined as twice or more a night.
• Overactive bladder: a sudden strong urge to pass urine as the main problem, with frequency by day and often at night.
• Cardiovascular disease: heart and blood vessel disease, whose most common form affects about 1 in 12 adults in Canada.
• Smoking cessation: nicotine dependence and what quitting support is funded in each province and territory. About 3.5 million people in Canada still smoke.
• Weight conditions: overweight and obesity as long-term medical conditions that interact with blood pressure, blood sugar and sleep.

What these conditions have in common

Much of this list runs on the same plumbing. Erections depend on healthy blood vessels and nerves, so new erectile difficulty is often the first visible sign of a blood vessel problem that also affects the heart. Bladder and prostate symptoms overlap with sleep, and poor sleep feeds back into weight, blood pressure and mood. Smoking and weight sit underneath most of it. Treat one and you frequently move several.

The other shared feature is timing. Men in Canada tend to come to health care later, and life expectancy at birth for males was 79.6 years in 2023, 4.4 years less than for females. Part of that gap involves conditions that were findable earlier, which is why this page leans on symptoms worth acting on rather than on reassurance. These conditions affect anyone with the relevant anatomy, including transgender, non-binary and gender-diverse people.

Treatment and management in Canada

Nearly all of this starts in primary care, with a urologist, cardiologist or sleep clinic involved when the picture calls for it. Depending on your situation, a health care team may discuss:

• Blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar management
• Medicines for erectile dysfunction, and separate medicines for bladder and prostate symptoms
• Quit-smoking support, counselling and medicines, funded in every province and territory
• Weight and metabolic care, including dietitian support and newer medicines
• Pelvic floor physiotherapy and bladder retraining, which are not only for women
• Assessment for sleep apnoea when snoring comes with daytime sleepiness
• Mental health support, including for depression and anxiety, which men more often describe as tiredness or irritability

What fits depends on your history and what you want to change. Those are decisions for you and your own clinician, and nothing here is a recommendation about any of them.

When to talk to a doctor

• Chest pain or pressure, pain spreading to the arm or jaw, sudden breathlessness, or sudden weakness on one side needs emergency care. Call 911.
• Sudden severe pain and swelling in a testicle, or an erection that will not go down after a few hours, needs emergency care.
• Being unable to pass urine at all, with a full and painful bladder, needs same-day care.
• Blood in the urine or semen, or a new lump in a testicle, should be assessed promptly.
• New erectile difficulty is worth an appointment, because it can be an early sign of a blood vessel or hormonal problem.
• Snoring with daytime sleepiness, or waking repeatedly to pass urine, is worth raising.

Why research in this area matters

The research questions here are shaped by that late-diagnosis pattern. Some studies are about the conditions themselves: newer options for bladder and prostate symptoms, treatments for heart and metabolic disease, and approaches to sexual function. Others are about reach, testing whether quit-smoking or weight programs delivered by phone or app get used by men who would not attend a clinic. There are also gaps in the Canadian evidence: the national figure for erectile dysfunction comes from a study published in 2006.

Studies are how those gaps close. Taking part is voluntary, you give informed consent first, and you can withdraw at any time without affecting the care you get from your own doctor. No one can tell in advance whether a study will help you personally.

Learn more from Canadian sources

• Canadian Men’s Health Foundation
• Canadian Urological Association
• Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada
• Health Canada: quit smoking services by province and territory
• Canadian Continence Foundation