Some 7,770 Americans will be killed this year by melanoma, the deadliest skin cancer. Over 5,000 of them will be men. In fact, men over age 50 are twice as likely as women to develop and die from skin cancer. Shockingly, between 1969 and 1999, melanoma mortality rates rose 66 percent in men aged 45-64.

Are males naturally more vulnerable than females to skin malignancies? Do more of them have some skin cancer death gene?

Hardly. Their problem, experts say, is not physical, but mental: When it comes to protecting their health, many men can’t be bothered.

Not So Benign Neglect

In a 2003 Lou Harris poll, 33 percent of men (vs. 19 percent of women) interviewed did not have a regular primary care physician. Three times more men than women avoided doctors when they had persisting minor medical symptoms, and many neglected to get routine screenings for such conditions as cancers, even if sent reminders and offered free testing by their health plans. The study found that this selfneglect very likely played a part in men’s having shorter life expectancy than women and higher mortality rates from the leading causes of death.

Men not only fail to seek regular professional skin exams, but rarely check their own skin. A 2001 study by the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) found that middle-aged and older men were the least likely individuals to perform self-exams or visit a dermatologist. Considering that women’s melanomas often appear on the legs, where they are highly visible, while men more often develop them on the upper back, it’s little wonder that men are less likely to detect the disease early, when it is readily curable. “A melanoma no thicker than a dime can pose a significant risk of mortality,” said Allan C. Halpern, MD, Chief, Dermatology Service, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York City, and a Vice President of The Skin Cancer Foundation. So, men’s cavalier attitude about their skin can truly prove fatal.

“These studies indicate that men’s failure to perform skin self-examinations or regularly visit a dermatologist increases their chances of having life-threatening, undetected melanoma,” said Dr. Halpern.

The First Frontier: Prevention

The problem might be less dire if men didn’t get themselves in trouble in the first place. Ninety percent of skin cancers are caused by the sun’s ultraviolet rays (UVR), in conjunction with specific predisposing factors such as tanning machine use, atypical moles, a history of sunburns, and hereditary traits like light skin, blond or red problem by skipping or skimping on safety strategies such as sun avoidance, shade, SPF 15+ sunscreen, a wide-brimmed hat, and other protective clothes, as well as sunglasses. “If they use sunscreen at all, they may put on too little and reapply too seldom. If they wear a hat, it’s usually a baseball cap, which is better than nothing, but protects only the forehead and front of the face, not the neck or side of the face,” explained Jeffrey Dover, MD, associate clinical professor of dermatology at Yale University School of Medicine.

It is never too late to practice sun safety or self-examination, notes Perry Robins, MD, President of The Skin Cancer Foundation. “However, it’s especially urgent that middleaged and older men — whose extensive sun exposure often leaves them at high risk for skin cancers — examine their skin head-to-toe monthly and have at least a yearly professional skin exam,” he says. “And younger males must be convinced of the absolute necessity of daily sun protection, before they pile up those destructive decades of unprotected exposure.”