Men's health is a neglected part of family health: Why employers should rethink their welfare strategies

Employer-sponsored healthcare has undergone a significant shift in the past decade. Mental health solutions are finally becoming mainstream. The benefits of fertility are expanding. Women's health has received overdue attention and innovation. However, in this development, a key area remains overlooked: men’s health.

More than 88% of working-age men have unprevented, reproductive and hormonal health needs. Despite creating half the labor force, men are struggling in the cracks of today’s welfare strategies, often silent, delayed care and only appear in the case of doctors when it’s too late.

For employers, it's more than just a missed opportunity. Financially, operationally and culturally, it is a responsibility for growth. Men’s health must not only be redefined as a clinical problem, but also as a strategic business leverage.

Men's health is family health

When men are bad, their families will feel it.

The father is unknown to himself and his family and is struggling with low testosterone may lack the energy to show up at home and interact with his children. A couple who struggle with male infertility may face stress, relationship stress, and delays when starting a family. Diagnosis of advanced prostate cancer has caused discomfort in the entire family's ecosystem, which not only destroys the lives of patients, but also the lives of their partners, children, and financial stability.

Family health includes the whole family and every family. When employers invest in men’s health, they are also investing in:

• The partner is healthy because stress and emotional stress usually delay the spouse during care.
• Birth equity as fertility care should be included because up to 50% of infertility cases involve male factors.
• Strengthen financial resilience through early intervention, thereby reducing medical bankruptcy, extended care needs and career disruptions.

In other words, supporting men’s health is supporting family health, which ultimately supports workforce well-being.

Ignoring men's health is expensive: It's time to rethink welfare strategies

Every year, thousands of men are struggling quietly, treatable, manageable conditions such as low testosterone, sexual dysfunction, fertility, prostate problems, and more. However, studies show that 55% of men with symptoms do not seek care, not because they don’t want to do so, but because the health care system is not built to satisfy their place.

This gap in men's health care creates huge costs for employers, such as:

• Higher claims costs: Delayed care leads to advanced conditions, emergency room visits, and high-cost interventions that could have been avoided in early screening and management.
• Loss of productivity: Men with untreated hormone problems, prostate problems, or chronic urology conditions often experience fatigue, brain fog, and physical discomfort, reducing attention and output at work.
• Increased absenteeism: Untreated chronic diseases, prostate diseases, hormonal disorders and late cancer diagnosis can lead to more disease ages and rest time.

The current welfare model is decentralized. Often men don’t know where to go for help, feel embarrassed, or just don’t have time to go on a traditional physical date. The traditional provider network is not optimized for male-specific needs and urology access is restricted. Other specialties (such as endocrinology) are isolated, while non-special telemedicine usually stops in general care.

Here, employers have a unique opportunity to build clear business cases and rethink how care services are performed for the male population. Providing proactive virtual professional men’s health solutions can really close this gap.

New model: virtual, home health

A better approach is to implement virtual male health solutions that provide confidential, accessible and clinically powerful pathways of care, all from home, office comfort or any other convenient location for male patients. This model has proven effective in different fields such as mental health and women’s health, driving higher engagement and better outcomes.

Virtual models include:

• Virtual visits through a board-certified urologist
• Inclusion diagnostic kits for hormones, semen analysis, prostate markers and other male-related diseases
• Personalized care plans involving preventive care, prostate, hormones, sexual and reproductive health
• Data-driven insights to track progress and manage risk

Digital male health solutions greatly increase engagement, especially among men who have traditionally avoided preventive care. This model supports early detection of high-risk conditions while helping to reduce avoidable emergency visits and late interventions. It addresses key priorities for employee welfare leaders by reducing health care costs, increasing productivity and improving employee satisfaction.

Most importantly: Men's health is family health and a smarter business strategy

When male health is ignored, the consequences of the overall workforce fluctuate, including delayed diagnosis, rising claims, decreased productivity, absenteeism and long-term stress on the family. However, most welfare strategies still fail to address specific, preventable conditions that affect nearly half of the employee population.

Redefining men’s health as a strategic priority, not just a clinical problem, opens the door to meaningful change. This means earlier interventions, fewer high-cost medical events, and improves participation in a group that has historically avoided care. This also means shorter leaves, stronger performance and a culture that values fairness in access and results.

It's not about shifting the focus to other plans and solutions, it's about completing the picture. Visionary employers who incorporate men’s health into their welfare design are seeing lower costs, better employee morale and healthier families.

Men's health is family health. This is labor health. This is the financial situation. This is business health.

Photo: Nicoelnino, Getty Images

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