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Men's health in Canada

More than two in five Canadian men die before they turn 75.

November is the month everyone talks about men's health, mostly because of the moustaches. This page is the part underneath: the Canadian numbers, the handful of things that genuinely help, and where to get help today if you need it.

of Canadian men die before 75
44%
of Canadian men die before 75
died prematurely in a single year
~75,000
died prematurely in a single year
shorter life expectancy than women
4.5 yrs
shorter life expectancy than women
of Canadian suicide deaths are men
3 in 4
of Canadian suicide deaths are men

What men's health month actually is

November is men's health month in Canada, driven by Movember — a global men's health charity founded in Australia in 2003, with a Canadian arm based in Toronto. It funds research and programs in three areas: mental health and suicide prevention, prostate cancer, and testicular cancer.

The moustache is the marketing. It exists to make people ask why, which is the whole trick: men's health suffers less from a lack of medicine than from a lack of conversation. Canada also marks Men's Health Week in June, in the week leading up to Father's Day, which is the other moment in the calendar when it's easy to raise this without it feeling out of nowhere.

The Canadian numbers

In 2025 the Movember Institute of Men's Health published a Canadian edition of its Real Face of Men's Health report. The findings are not subtle.

  • Roughly 44 percent of Canadian men die prematurely, before the age of 75 — close to 75,000 men in a single year.
  • A boy born in Canada can expect to live about four and a half years less than a girl born the same day.
  • Cancer and coronary heart disease lead. Suicide is fourth, and around three in four suicide deaths in Canada are men.
  • 54 percent of men reported at least one barrier to engaging effectively with a healthcare provider, and only 48 percent felt actively listened to at their first interaction.
  • Indigenous men face the highest rates across the most common causes of premature death.

None of this is mysterious. It is late diagnoses, skipped appointments, untreated depression, and a generation of men taught that needing help is a character flaw.

Five things that actually help

  1. 1

    Book the appointment for a date, not for “soon”

    A baseline visit — blood pressure, bloodwork, a real conversation about family history — is what turns a future emergency into a boring afternoon. The men who die early are rarely the ones who went and got bad news. They're the ones who never went.

  2. 2

    Learn the two checks that take four minutes

    A testicular self-check is a monthly thirty-second habit, best done after a warm shower. For prostate, the PSA conversation starts around 50, or 45 with a family history or if you're Black. Neither requires courage. Both require a calendar reminder.

  3. 3

    Ask the second question

    “How are you” gets “good.” “How are you actually — how's sleep been?” gets an answer. Then stop talking. The silence is the part that works, and you are not there to fix anything.

  4. 4

    Name one person who gets the real answer

    Not everyone. One. Most men's mental health support in this country doesn't come from a clinic. It comes from someone who noticed and refused to accept “fine.”

  5. 5

    Move, sleep, and drink less than you did at 25

    Deeply unglamorous, consistently effective. Physical activity is among the strongest available protections for both heart health and depression, and alcohol is usually the thing quietly holding both down.

If things are bad right now

988 — Suicide Crisis Helpline

Call or text 988, free, 24/7, anywhere in Canada, in English or French. In an immediate emergency call 911. For non-urgent health questions, most provinces run a free 811 health line.

If you're reading this about someone else: asking a person directly whether they're thinking about suicide does not plant the idea. It is one of the few things that reliably helps.

How to support men's health in Canada

Donating to Movember Canada is the obvious route, and their Canadian site takes donations and hosts fundraising pages directly. Locally, most provinces have men's sheds, peer-support groups and fatherhood programs that run on almost nothing and would notice a hundred dollars.

OurFather gives 10% of net profit and $5 from every item in our shop to Hi Dad Foundation, a registered Canadian charity working on men's mental health and fatherhood. We also make a small line of shirts and mugs built around one idea — ask twice — because a conversation starter you wear is doing the same job the moustache does.

See the men's health lineRead the full explainer

Frequently asked questions

When is men's health month in Canada?
November is the month most associated with men's health in Canada, driven by the moustache-growing campaign Movember, which was founded in Australia in 2003 and runs a Canadian arm out of Toronto. Canada also marks Men's Health Week in the week leading up to Father's Day in June.
How many Canadian men die prematurely each year?
Movember's Real Face of Men's Health Canadian report put it at close to 75,000 men in a single year — more than two in five Canadian men dying before the age of 75, largely from causes that are considered preventable.
Why do Canadian men die younger than Canadian women?
A boy born in Canada can expect to live roughly four and a half years less than a girl born the same day. Cancer and coronary heart disease are the two leading causes of premature death in men, with suicide fourth. Later and less frequent engagement with healthcare compounds all three.
What are the men's health crisis lines in Canada?
988 is Canada's national suicide crisis helpline, available 24/7 by call or text, in English and French, from anywhere in the country. For non-urgent health questions, most provinces run a free 811 health line. In an emergency, call 911.
Do you have to grow a moustache to support men's health?
No. Movember also runs move-based challenges and lets people host their own fundraisers, and plenty of people take part simply by donating. The single highest-value thing most people can do costs nothing: ask a man in your life how he is, then ask a second time.
When should men start prostate and testicular checks?
Testicular self-checks are a monthly, thirty-second habit, most relevant for men aged roughly 15 to 44, and testicular cancer is highly survivable when caught early. The conversation with a doctor about PSA testing for prostate cancer generally starts around age 50, or around 45 for men who are Black or who have a father or brother who was diagnosed.

Where these numbers come from

Premature death, life expectancy, cause-of-death ranking and barriers-to-care figures are from the Movember Institute of Men's Health, The Real Face of Men's Health, Canadian report, 2025. The suicide share is consistent with the Mental Health Commission of Canada, which reports that close to 75% of the roughly 4,000 suicide deaths in Canada each year are men. OurFather is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or a partner of Movember; we write about their published research as a third party.