The Men's Health Conversation Your Doctor Wishes You'd Start: Dr. Nathan Starke’s Essential Men’s Health Tips

When it comes to health, men have a reputation for being less than proactive. They skip annual checkups. They brush off concerning symptoms. They wait until something becomes unbearable before seeking help.

Dr. Nathan Starke, former director of the Houston Methodist Men’s Health Center, sees this pattern constantly. As a board-certified urologist and andrologist specializing in men’s health, he’s spent years helping men address issues they often don’t feel comfortable discussing, and he’s noticed some surprising connections that could change how men think about their overall wellbeing.

“Men are particularly bad at talking about their health,” Dr. Starke explains. But knowing these men’s health tips can give any man the language he needs to initiate early and open conversations with a doctor. 

Stop Suffering in Silence

Perhaps the most important message Dr. Starke emphasizes is cultural: men need to get better at taking care of their health.

“Men are notoriously terrible at taking care of their own health,” he observes. This manifests in multiple ways: avoiding regular checkups, not discussing symptoms with partners or doctors, and enduring fixable problems because they’re embarrassed.

The stigma around men’s health issues, particularly urological and sexual health concerns, means many men suffer unnecessarily.

“I wish that men would not be ashamed about their male-specific issues and seek help for them in the way that women are often so much better about,” Starke says. Most male-specific issues, whether related to urination, sexual function, hormones, or fertility, are addressable, if not completely fixable. But only if men actually seek help, he explains.

Your Sexual Health Might Be Warning You About Your Heart

Dr. Starke’s research has uncovered an interesting link between erectile dysfunction and cardiovascular disease. It’s not just about sexual function; it could also be an early warning system.

“In men, especially younger men, say late thirties, early forties, erectile dysfunction is often the very first sign of underlying significant cardiovascular disease,” Dr. Starke explains. 

The findings from his research are supported by the physiology: the same factors that narrow arteries in the heart also affect the much smaller arteries supplying blood to the penis.

“Narrowings in that area are sort of noticeable in the form of sexual dysfunction years and years before you start to have chest pain or heart attacks or strokes,” he notes.

This connection is so well-established that Dr. Starke and his colleagues implemented a policy requiring cardiovascular evaluation for men under 55 presenting with erectile dysfunction. Beyond prescribing Viagra or checking testosterone levels, they ensure patients get screened for more serious underlying cardiovascular issues.

The takeaway? If you’re experiencing erectile dysfunction, especially if you’re younger, don’t ignore it. It deserves more than an online prescription. It warrants a comprehensive health evaluation.

Weight Matters More Than You Think

Obesity doesn’t just affect how you look or your energy levels. It can create a cascade of health problems that impact virtually every system in your body, including sexual function.

“Obesity increases inflammation and stress on every part of your body. It can cause nerve damage and blood pressure problems,” Dr. Starke explained in an interview with Men’s Health Magazine. All of these factors can interfere with your ability to get an erection, since your neurological system needs to tell blood vessels in your pelvis to relax certain muscles, allowing blood to flow into the penis.

Obesity can also affect hormone production, potentially leading to lower testosterone, which further contributes to erectile dysfunction. It’s a cycle that feeds on itself—and breaking it requires addressing weight as a foundational health issue.

His research on male fertility reinforces this connection. When men address overall health concerns—including weight—virtually every health marker improves, often including fertility.

Maintaining a healthy weight through proper diet and regular exercise isn’t just about appearance. It’s about protecting your cardiovascular health, hormonal balance, sexual function, and overall quality of life.

Don’t Rely Blindly on Lab Cutoffs

Here’s something that might surprise you about testosterone testing: the difference between “low” and “normal” testosterone might be a single point on a lab result. And that cutoff might not tell the whole story.

As Dr. Stake explained in GQ Magazine: “For example, with total testosterone, you weren’t considered low, depending on the guideline you rely on, until you were below 250. If you were 251, you were normal. Other guidelines commonly use 300 as the cutoff. 299 is low, 301 is normal. And none of that ever made any sense to me because men on both sides of the cutoff-point can have the exact same symptoms suggesting a problematically low T level.”

His research into free testosterone, a different measure that may be more accurate, revealed that many men with technically “normal” total testosterone but low free testosterone still benefit from treatment when they have appropriate symptoms.

The message isn’t to demand testosterone therapy. It’s to advocate for yourself. If you’re experiencing symptoms of low testosterone but your labs come back “normal,” discuss with your doctor whether additional testing might be warranted. Medicine isn’t always black and white.

Your Fertility Might Reflect Your Overall Health

When couples struggle with fertility, the focus often lands primarily on female factors. But male fertility has been declining, and the reasons extend beyond reproductive health alone.

Dr. Starke’s research explored whether semen analysis could serve as a screening tool for overall health in young men. The hypothesis: declining male fertility might be linked to the same factors driving obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.

“We wanted to figure out whether you could use semen analysis as an indicator that general health may in fact be a bigger part of the problem than just isolated male-factor infertility,” Dr. Starke explains.

The research suggests that addressing broader health concerns—improving diet, losing weight, managing chronic conditions—could improve fertility as a byproduct of being healthier overall.

For men trying to conceive, this means fertility isn’t just about reproductive-specific interventions. Your general health matters enormously.

How to Make Health a Habit

Dr. Starke’s advice boils down to several key principles:

Pay attention to warning signs. Erectile dysfunction isn’t just about sexual function—it could signal cardiovascular problems. Don’t dismiss symptoms as “just part of aging.”

Maintain a healthy weight. The benefits extend far beyond appearance. Weight affects everything from sleep quality to fertility to cardiovascular health.

Be your own advocate. If something doesn’t feel right, speak up. If lab results don’t align with your symptoms, ask questions. Medicine works best when patients and doctors work together.

Get regular checkups. Many men only see a doctor when something goes seriously wrong. Regular preventive care catches problems early when they’re most treatable. Starke recommends annual visits with a primary care physician beginning at age 30-35 at latest.

Drop the stigma. There’s nothing shameful about urological or sexual health issues. They’re medical concerns like any other, and most are highly treatable.

As Dr. Starke puts it when describing his approach to patient care, addressing men’s health issues can lead to dramatic quality of life improvements “without a whole lot of life or death craziness.” Many issues that seem embarrassing or unfixable are actually straightforward to treat—if men are willing to have the conversation.

The first step? Schedule that checkup you’ve been putting off. Your future self will thank you.