Male eating disorder rise blamed on social pressure

Anorexia may have traditionally been considered to be a "women's disease" but dramatic increases in the number of male sufferers are being seen by eating disorder experts.

One consultant has revealed that for the first time, he has seen more male anorexia referrals than females. Professor Hubert Lacey, the head of the eating disorder unit at St George's hospital in Tooting, south London, said he believed the increase was due to greater social pressure on men to look good.

He said: "Last week for the first time ever I had more male referrals for anorexia than female. That was just one week this summer but I would say it has been increasing steadily in the past two or three years."

Professor Lacey's words came as it was revealed that the number of men treated for anorexia – "manorexia" – has increased by 67 per cent in the past five years. Men now account for between 5 and 10 per cent of all eating disorder sufferers.

He added: "The disorder is still much more prevalent in females than males but the main increases have been in teenage boys. A few years ago it was often the case that my ward had no men on it. Now, on a ward of 20, I have three men.

"Statistics say that only 5 or 10 per cent of anorexia sufferers are men. Three out of 20 is more than that and I can only see the number of male referrals increasing. I don't know why I'm seeing more men but an educated guess is that social changes mean image is more important to men than it used to be."

Despite the increase, Professor Lacey believes that many more men are going untreated because they see anorexia as a "women's disease".

He added that the number of men being treated was lower than it should be because there were fewer facilities for men due to a rule in which girls under the age of 18 cannot occupy the same ward as men.

"I know of some hospitals that don't treat any men because of this rule," he said. "Because more females are referred for treatment some places have had to make a choice between the two and have chosen to treat women.

"It's a shame, because while I can see why the rule is in place, the symptoms are exactly the same. They all have an intense fear of natural body weight." Professor Lacey's observations have been welcomed by Mark Reilly from the eating disorder charity, B-eat.

He said: "Research suggests that 100,000 men in the UK have anorexia or bulimia, but that is based on the men who come forward. The true figure is much higher. There are still many blokes who don't want to talk about health issues, including anorexia."

Steve Blacknell, 56, from Kent, is a former anorexia and bulimia sufferer. He said: "It used to be that women might look at a stick-thin model on the front of a magazine, and be desperate to look like the model. That was never an issue for men. But nowadays men look at magazines and see guys with washboard stomachs and want to look the same. It is really dangerous."