To the Editor: Perusing your long-needed issue on men’s health,1 I was struck by the absence of any mention of obstructive sleep apnoea.

As an anaesthetist in private practice, I see three or four middle-aged men with previously undiagnosed obstructive sleep apnoea each week. Usually, I also see at least one man who has had the diagnosis confirmed, but has not persisted with treatment because his wife has become used to his snoring or has moved to another bedroom.

Advising the undiagnosed men of the importance of a sleep test, I refer them back to their general practitioner for follow-up, and suggest a couple of respiratory physicians who could perform the test. On a somewhat random follow-up, I have been disappointed with the results, as the following comments were reported back after men’s GP consultations:

• “Most blokes over 50 snore”;

• “Your wife will get used to it”; and

• “Surgery doesn’t work”.

Men who have been diagnosed but haven’t persisted with treatment (together with their wives) are often totally unaware of the health risks; they believe that they are only managing the unacceptable noise of their snore!

I would have thought that some of the articles in the issue would have mentioned the contribution of obstructive sleep apnoea to hypertension, atrial fibrillation, erectile dysfunction and sleep disturbances, with resulting poor performance during the day, particularly in the workplace.

This is an extremely important health issue (and not only in men) that appears to be sadly neglected, still.

In reply: We thank Sleeman for his astute comment. In the men’s health issue,1 our intention was to highlight several major areas relevant to men’s health rather than attempt comprehensive coverage of the field. Sleep apnoea was indeed one of the potential topics we identified when we planned the issue. We anticipated that sleep apnoea would be discussed within some of the key contributions to the issue. Although this did not eventuate, we acknowledge the importance of sleep apnoea in general medical practice, and plan to revisit the topic in future issues of the Journal.