Men's health can be a difficult topic to address at the best of times, but especially in the workplace. It’s time to breakdown barriers around men’s physical and mental health issues and normalise taking care of ourselves in the best way possible.

At Fertifa, we have a Men’s Health Policy in place because we want all of our employees to feel empowered to take control of their health and get checked out if they think something is wrong. A Men’s Health Policy is an important part of building an inclusive workplace that works for everyone.

• More than 52,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer every year in the UK – that's 143 men every day.
• 75% of men put off going to the doctor when they feel ill.
• 52% of men will experience some form of erectile dysfunction in their lifetime.

Our template policy includes the reasons why your employees need a Men’s Health Policy and an overview of the most common men’s health challenges and conditions. We outline how employees can book time off, access support, and how many days an employee should be entitled to. We also include a section with men’s health terminology that covers some of the more confusing and lesser-known terms.

Over the next few months, we'll be releasing more of our internal policies, including our pregnancy loss, menopause, fertility and family-forming policies. We hope that other companies will use these templates when thinking about establishing their own. 

Although we use the term ‘men's health’ throughout, this policy is inclusive of all employees assigned male at birth, no matter their gender identity. If you feel like the language we’ve used here could be changed to be more inclusive of you, please let us know. We are always open to learning.