Orlando TV anchor urges health screenings for men

On average, men die six years earlier than women, largely for preventable reasons, and Bruce Haughey, MD, an otolaryngologist with the AdventHealth Cancer Institute, sees the male mindset of putting it off often.

Dr. Haughey says he frequently hears excuses like, “This isn’t really very big. I can still function with this, I’m at work, I’m eating, everything’s going OK. Why would I have to subject myself to a surgical procedure?”

Dr. Haughey says one of his patients, WFTV news anchor Greg Warmoth, is an example of what men should do as part of raising awareness for men’s health issues. According to the Movember Foundation, men are 24% less likely than women to have visited a doctor within the past year.

Whether it’s fear or just finding the time, Warmoth recently shared in his Men's Health Awareness Month story that men typically don’t do a good job of getting screened.

“Doing nothing is one of the major enemies of effective medical care because when someone has a malignant diagnosis like Warmoth had, the best thing the medical profession can offer is early treatment,” said Dr. Haughey.

In a follow up story, Dr. Haughey went on to say that if Warmoth hadn’t caught his lip cancer early, it could have killed him.

“Yes, in the ultimate, it could have, because when they get very large in this location, they then spread to the region, such as the lymph nodes in the neck, and then it spread potentially to the rest of the body,” Haughey said.

Dr. Haughey and Warmoth hope Warmoth's story is a lesson for all men: Get screened early because doing nothing is not an option.