HOW TO MAKE HIM GO TO THE DOCTOR

Getting a man to go to a GP is like finding a photo of Victoria Beckham in flip-flops almost impossible. Men associate doctors with desperate illness, so they won't go unless a leg is hanging off. This worries Alan White, professor of men's health at Leeds Metropolitan University and chair of the Men's Health Forum, as a man's reluctance to submit to any kind of health check means that he's vulnerable to a wide range of preventable illnesses. If his waist measures more than 40in, for example, irrespective of his height or bulk, he's at greater risk of high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes. Men are more likely to die from the cancers that affect both sexes equally.

"My argument," says Professor White, "is that the health service should target men. If he gets a letter from his surgery inviting him to a health check on Thursday the 27th at 2pm, he'll go. He can say to his boss, 'I need half a day off.' But he won't make the appointment himself." Until health checks become routine, you may have to reconcile yourself to playing mother and making the appointment for him. If he won't even let you do that, this may be the one occasion when only threats will work. "I have interviewed men with prostate cancer," says Professor White, "who admit that the only reason they went to the doctor was that their wives threatened to leave them if they didn't."

HOW TO MAKE HIM...
...STOP DRINKING
...GET MARRIED
...LEAVE THE JOB HE HATES
...HAVE CHILDREN
...STOP SMOKING