How men can utilize benefits to support their health

By Lee Hafner June 24, 2025, 7:00 a.m. EDT 4 Min Read

Men are taking a more proactive approach to their health. Benefit managers can showcase company support with targeted offerings and communication.

Helping men focus on preventative healthcare can't come soon enough: Men currently have an increased risk for heart attack, stroke and cancer, and die by suicide four times as often as women, according to USA.gov. In a survey by the Cleveland Clinic, 65% of male respondents said they avoid the doctor for as long as possible, and separate research shows only about one-third of men who need mental health support receive it.

Health and wellness benefits that encourage things like annual checkups and cancer screenings, and that help men make healthier lifestyle choices, can make a difference. Men aren't just looking to live longer, they're looking to live healthier, says Kurt Lunkwitz, the chief operating officer at ProRx Pharma, an FDA-registered 503B facility that provides compounded medications focused on preventative care.

"Men are specifically looking for self care, emotional well-being and longevity," he says "They are [also] learning that having low testosterone or health imbalances could cause different types of diagnostic shifts within their body, and they're finding that these are very treatable and that they significantly impact things like energy, libido, mood, body composition, and the way they feel physically and mentally."

Men's motivations for leading healthier lives may vary — staying active for their children, a history of family illness, long-term independence during retirement — but there's a growing theme of viewing their health as a long-term asset, says Lunkwitz. Employers that embrace this view as well will be the ones to stand out.

"We're taught that we invest, we have a 401(k) and we continue to feed that nest egg our entire life so that we have something to look forward to in our future," Lunkwitz says. "Men are looking at health the same way. Spending money on health optimization is no longer framed as an expense; it's being now framed as an investment."

How benefits can help

By making health and wellness opportunities convenient, such as with telemedicine options, benefit managers can provide employees access to a wider variety of specialists, quicker appointments and time savings, Lunkwitz says.

"Telemedicine is a much easier, faster, more efficient way for a patient to meet with a qualified physician to talk about their health," he says. "[Otherwise] it might take them weeks or months to get an appointment, [and] they're contending with things like programs after school with the kids or other things that could potentially discourage someone from making an appointment."

Additionally, offering access to a wide variety of physicians, care and treatments through telehealth allows employers to ensure they're meeting the broader needs of employees, Lunkwitz points out. Well-designed preventative health offerings help employers save money on health costs thanks to catching issues early or avoiding them altogether — a major benefit to employees as well.

"For employers, providing certain programs is a way for them to ensure their employees are healthier, happier, more productive and more efficient," Lunkwitz says. "From the patient's perspective, having access to programs that are needed for them to feel well and healthy makes them better at everything they do in life."

Building awareness within the workplace

Benefit leaders can further assist their employees' wellness journey by communicating the offerings available to them. Lunkwitz notes targeted, digestible resources such as a newsletter on men's health that addresses facts, trends and associated benefits, and also recommends varying touchpoints such as podcasts, expert speakers and company leaders who can speak about their own health experiences.

"Allowing men to know that they have multiple channels of healthcare, and not just for traditional medicine, would be a great starting point," Lunkwitz says. "Men are becoming much more educated, and they're looking for a way to faster, easier patient access that addresses things like weight loss, lower hormone or testosterone levels, mental health, ED and hair loss. A lot of these men would look at that and say, 'Hey, that's exactly what I've been looking for. I've seen the commercials, I've heard people talking about it, and I'm very excited to see that my employer is now offering these types of services.'"

Read more about supporting men's health in the workplace:

Lee Hafner

Editor, Employee Benefit News