Eating disorders (EDs) are an increasingly common form of mental ill health and have been highlighted as a clinical priority area for Youth Mental Health in 2013–2016 by the UK's Royal College of General Practitioners. Early diagnosis and intervention can prevent the development of long-term, potentially life-threatening, psychiatric morbidity.

The widespread perception of eating disorder ED as uniquely or predominantly a female problem led to an initial failure by young men to recognise their behaviours as symptoms of an ED.
To understand how young men recognise eating disorder (ED) symptoms and decide to seek help, and to examine their experiences of initial contacts with primary care, 10 men aged 16–25 years with various EDs including anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, from across the UK, were interviewed as part of a study of 39 young men's and women's experiences of having an ED.

Many presented late in their illness trajectory when ED behaviours and symptoms were entrenched, and some felt that opportunities to recognise their illness had been missed because of others’ lack of awareness of EDs in men. In addition, the men discussed the lack of gender-appropriate information and resources for men with EDs as an additional impediment to making sense of their experiences, and some felt that health and other professionals had been slow to recognise their symptoms because they were men.

Although increasingly common in young men, widespread cultural constructions of EDs as a ‘women's illness’ mean that men may fail to recognise ED symptoms until disordered behaviours become entrenched and less tractable to intervention. Men also report that such perceptions can affect the reactions of their families and friends, as well as health and educational professionals. Primary care professionals are well placed to challenge inappropriate perceptions of EDs.

For more information
BMJ Open 2014;4:e004342
The role of gendered constructions of eating disorders in delayed help-seeking in men: a qualitative interview study

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