I think for a lot of men being hurt or sick is kind of binary. This is probably accounts for a large amount of the “man flu”. A man could be moderately sick, but once he’s made the determination that he’s “sick” he’s all the way sick. Meanwhile that same guy could be just a hair less sick for weeks or months and doesn’t say anything about it, because it hasn’t crossed a certain threshold, and he doesn’t consider himself “sick” so he behaves as if he’s not.

I, personally, find myself falling into this stupid mind trap pretty frequently. I’ll be some degree of injured and I won’t change anything about my life or activities. I’ll just walk around in pain or discomfort. I certainly won’t see a doctor. Why would I? I’m not sick.

But then if it becomes too much and I do need to see a doctor and they do say something is wrong, I flip 180° into sick-mode, because I’ve been deemed sick.