Movember: Ten Signs Men Should Not Ignore

Award-winning nutritionist and author Daniel O’Shaughnessy shares ten signs that something may need more attention, from symptoms men normalise to “healthy” behaviours that may have gone too far

This Movember, award-winning nutritionist and author Daniel O’Shaughnessy is encouraging men to look beyond the more obvious markers of health and pay attention to the everyday symptoms and behaviours that can easily become normalised. Daniel shares ten signs that something may need more attention, from persistent tiredness, digestive issues and poor sleep to seemingly “healthy” habits around food, exercise and body image that may have gone too far.

Rather than another list of things men should be doing perfectly, Daniel’s advice is about recognising when the body or mind may be trying to tell us something, understanding what could be sitting behind it and knowing when it is worth seeking further support.

1. You're tired all the time, but you've started treating it as normal

There’s a difference between occasionally being tired and consistently waking unrefreshed, struggling through the afternoon or relying on caffeine to function. I think men can become very good at functioning badly and simply accepting it or pushing through it. Persistent fatigue can have all sorts of causes, from poor sleep and chronic stress to nutritional deficiencies, not eating enough or underlying health issues, so it is worth asking why it is happening rather than simply finding another way to push through it.

What to do: Start with the basics. Look at how much and how well you’re sleeping, whether you’re eating enough, your caffeine and alcohol intake, and current stress levels. If fatigue is persistent, unexplained or affecting your daily life, speak to your GP rather than simply trying to push through it. Depending on your symptoms and history, assessing things such as iron and ferritin, B12 and folate, vitamin D and thyroid function can also provide useful clues about what may be contributing to persistent fatigue.

2. Your digestion is constantly playing up

Bloating, reflux, constipation, diarrhoea and abdominal discomfort are easy to dismiss when they have been happening for a long time. People often start adapting their lives around symptoms rather than questioning why they are there. Occasional digestive issues are normal, but persistent or changing symptoms deserve attention rather than endless self-treatment or increasingly restrictive diets.

What to do: Rather than continually cutting foods out, keep a simple record of your symptoms and any obvious triggers. If digestive problems are persistent, changing or affecting your everyday life, speak to your GP or a suitably qualified nutrition or healthcare professional rather than relying on self-diagnosis or increasingly restrictive diets.

3. Your libido or sexual function has changed

Changes in libido, erections or sexual function can sometimes tell us something about health beyond sex itself. Sleep, stress, medication, hormones, cardiovascular health, mental health and relationships can all play a part. Some men may be reluctant to talk about sexual difficulties because they become tied up with masculinity, body image and embarrassment, but a noticeable or persistent change is worth paying attention to. Hormone testing can provide one part of the picture, particularly if symptoms suggest something hormonal may be going on, but results need to be considered alongside symptoms and the wider context rather than in isolation.

What to do: Think about what else may have changed around the same time, including sleep, stress, medication, alcohol, relationships and mental health. If the change is persistent or concerning you, speak to your GP or a sexual health professional rather than assuming it is simply age or something you have to live with.

4. You persistently don’t feel like yourself

Changes in mental health do not always look like obvious sadness or reach the threshold of a crisis. You might feel more irritable or anxious, struggle to concentrate, withdraw from people, lose interest in things you normally enjoy, feel constantly overwhelmed or notice that you increasingly need something to switch your brain off. Changes in sleep, motivation, attention or your ability to cope with everyday demands can also be signs that something deserves attention. There may be many explanations, from prolonged stress and burnout to anxiety, depression, ADHD or physical factors that can affect how we think and feel. We understandably talk about suicide in men’s health, but there is a huge amount that can happen psychologically before somebody reaches crisis, and you do not need to wait until things become unmanageable to take those changes seriously.

What to do: Pay attention to what has actually changed. Are you more irritable, anxious, distracted, withdrawn or overwhelmed than usual? Has your sleep, motivation, concentration or ability to cope shifted? Rather than assuming this is simply “how you are”, consider what might be contributing, from prolonged stress and burnout to anxiety, depression, ADHD or physical factors. If those changes are persistent or affecting daily life, it is worth discussing them with your GP or a mental health professional. If you are experiencing suicidal thoughts or feel at immediate risk, seek urgent help.

5. You keep exercising in ways you know aren't working for you

Exercise is good for us, but harder and more intense does not automatically mean healthier. If your training is repeatedly leaving you injured, exhausted, disrupting your sleep or affecting how you function outside the gym, it may be time to question whether that particular approach is still serving you. The same applies if you feel guilty about resting, train through pain or dismiss walking, mobility work, yoga or lower-intensity exercise because they do not feel challenging or “masculine” enough. Sometimes the healthier choice is not another hard session but recovery, changing how you train or doing less. The problem is that pushing through is often praised as discipline, even when your body is telling you otherwise.

What to do: Give recovery the same importance as training. Take the rest day, stop training through pain and consider whether your current routine is actually making you feel better. Walking, mobility work and lower-intensity exercise such as Hatha or yin yoga, and sometimes reducing the intensity or changing how you train is the healthier option.

6. You’re becoming increasingly preoccupied with your body

There is nothing inherently wrong with wanting to change your appearance, build muscle or lose body fat. The question is how much psychological space it occupies. Constantly checking your body, comparing yourself with other men, photographing or weighing yourself, or feeling that there is always another part of your body that needs fixing can become deeply distressing. This can also extend to the use of steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs, particularly when getting bigger, leaner or stronger never quite feels enough. Body-image problems and body dysmorphia are not exclusively female issues, and the pressure on men to be simultaneously muscular and lean has become increasingly normalised.

What to do: Pay attention to how much time you spend thinking about, checking or trying to change your body, and how you feel when you cannot follow your usual routine. If your appearance is starting to dictate your mood, eating, social life, relationships or self-worth, it may be worth talking to a mental health professional with experience in body image or disordered eating. If steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs are part of the picture, consider discussing what you are taking openly with an appropriate healthcare professional too.

7. Your supplement or optimisation regime keeps getting bigger

Supplements can be useful when they are used intelligently and for a reason, but there is now an enormous industry built around convincing men that almost every aspect of their biology needs optimising. Before adding another product to an increasingly complicated stack, ask what you are actually trying to achieve and whether there is good evidence that the supplement will help. Where appropriate, testing can also help identify genuine deficiencies or areas that need attention rather than simply guessing. Supplements should complement the bigger picture, not distract from sleep, stress, trauma, food, alcohol, training or mental health.

What to do: Before buying the next supplement, ask yourself what am I taking this for, is there good evidence that it could help with that goal, and do I have a reason to think I actually need it? Where appropriate, testing can help you make that decision rather than simply guessing. If your supplement regime has become complicated, consider reviewing it with an appropriately qualified healthcare professional rather than simply adding more.

8. You increasingly need something to switch off or change how you feel

Pay attention if you increasingly feel that you need something to alter your state, particularly at the end of the day. That might mean cannabis, sleep aids, calming supplements, food, sex or another behaviour that helps you come down, switch off or get to sleep. None of these things automatically indicates a problem, but it is worth noticing when they start to feel necessary rather than optional. If you rarely feel able to relax, be still or fall asleep without changing how you feel first, the more useful question may be what is keeping your system so switched on in the first place.

What to do: Look at what you routinely reach for to help yourself relax, switch off or sleep. Has a sleep aid, cannabis, calming supplement or other behaviour become automatic simply because it is part of your routine, or because it feels normal when everyone around you seems to be doing the same? Try to distinguish between something that is genuinely helping and something you have started to believe you cannot manage without. If it feels increasingly necessary, it may be worth looking at what is making it difficult to wind down or sleep in the first place.

9. Being healthy has started to feel like a full-time job

Wellness and biohacking culture can make us feel as though there is always something else we should be doing to become healthier. Foods get removed, rules accumulate, everything gets tracked and there is always another wearable, protocol, cold plunge, fasting regime or health trend to try. Individually, some of these things may be useful, but constantly chasing the latest intervention can make health increasingly restrictive and anxiety-provoking. There is a point at which trying to optimise every aspect of your body starts reducing your quality of life. Health should support the life you want to live, rather than becoming another thing you have to perfect.

What to do: Try simplifying rather than adding another intervention. Ask which habits genuinely make you feel better and which ones you’re following because you feel you “should”. You do not need to track every metric, follow every trend or optimise every part of your day to look after your health.

10. You’re treating individual symptoms without looking at the bigger picture

Health problems rarely exist in neat little boxes. If you are anxious, exhausted, struggling with sleep or feeling persistently low, it is easy to accept that this is simply how you are or focus entirely on making that particular symptom go away. Sometimes we need to ask a broader question: why might I be feeling this way? That can mean looking at physical health, nutrition and hormones, but also stress, relationships, past experiences, trauma, environment and the beliefs or patterns that shape how you respond to life. Our psychological and physical health continually influence one another. Men’s health understandably focuses on serious outcomes such as cancer, cardiovascular disease and suicide, but there is often a much bigger story before we reach diagnosis or crisis. Paying attention to that whole picture can help us understand what our symptoms may actually be telling us.

What to do: Take a step back and look for patterns rather than treating every symptom as an isolated problem. Consider what has changed across your sleep, food, stress, relationships, work, exercise, alcohol or other substance use, and your mental health. If symptoms are persistent or concerning, take that bigger picture to your GP or another appropriate healthcare professional rather than trying to solve each one separately.

For more information: https://danieloshaughnessy.com/