Men die around five years earlier than women and this may be because men are less likely to go to a doctor, and once there, are less likely to be honest about their symptoms, new research suggests.

"Men can expect to die five years earlier than women, and physiological differences don't explain that difference. The question that we wanted to answer was, why do men die earlier than women?" US researchers said.

They decided to look into this further by carrying out two studies, each involving around 500 people. The studies revealed that men who held traditional beliefs about masculinity were more likely to ignore health problems, or delay seeking help.

Traditional masculine beliefs included the ideas that men should be brave and tough, and not show emotion.

These men were also more likely to choose a male doctor over a female doctor, believing the males to be more competent. However ironically, they were less likely to be honest with male doctors about their health issues.

"That's because they don't want to show weakness or dependence to another man, including a male doctor," the researchers suggested.

These men tended to be more honest with female doctors because they did not believe that revealing their vulnerabilities to a woman led to any loss of status.

The researchers said that men have ‘a cultural script that tells them they should be brave, self-reliant and tough'. However they added that in this case, self-reliance could be dangerous to a man's health.

Details of these findings are published in two journals, Preventive Medicine and The Journal of Health Psychology.