ISSSTE Stars Men’s Health Campaign

The Institute of Security and Social Services of State Workers (ISSSTE) announced its “February, men’s health month” campaign to raise awareness about male health concerns, prostate cancer in particular.

The institute had been pushing for this campaign since 2018 and its efforts intensified after the Counsel of the National Population (CONAPO) reported that men’s life expectancy was six years shorter than women’s. Under the slogan “Cancer is not a game, take control of your prostate”, the campaign looks to destigmatize seeking health assistance due to the taboo nature of the topic among certain communities, explained Pedro Zenteno Santaella, General Director, ISSSTE.  

The main goal of the campaign is to encourage the country’s men to seek out aid from primary care doctors to attain a prostate-antigen test. Nationally, ISSSTE expects to increase the administration of these tests among  men over 45 years of age and by the end of the year, surpass the 126,874 tests made in 2021 by reaching 358,150.

The institute will also perform activities in units across the country to increase awareness of chronic-degenerative diseases, mouth pathology, addictions and sexual and nutritional health. To achieve this goal, the Detection and Automatized Diagnostics Clinic (CLIDDA) will duplicate its preventive integral check-ups for men on Thursdays.

According to ISSSTE's annual statistics, 5.09 million men sought medical consultations in 2020, 37 percent below women’s 8.06 million medical visits. ISSSTE’s findings also point to a prevalence of cases of kidney failure and acute myocardial infarction (AMI) among men. Similarly, INEGI reported that the main causes of death among adult males over the age of 65 were heart diseases (26.7 percent), diabetes mellitus (15.4 percent) and malignant tumors (12.6 percent).

Zenteno said that the “February, men’s health month” campaign is part of ISSSTE’s transformative strategy, which aims primarily to reinforce prevention practices and encourage men to seek medical services.

ISSSTE also aims to fight types of cancer more prevalent in women. Malignant breast cancer tumors followed by uterus and ovarian tumors are the main cancer complications resulting in death among women between 30 and 59 years old. Over the last two years, there has been a decline in vaccination for young women against the human papillomavirus (HPV), the primary cause for uterus malignant tumors. Deaths caused by malignant breast cancer tumors also continued to increase.