Men, get your eyes tested today: local optometrist

The research showed the equivalent of 15,760 men in the Hawkesbury area could be waiting until they experienced a health issue before booking a check-up, rather than engaging in regular appointments, closing the window for early detection on eye conditions.

Specsavers Richmond Marketplace Optometrist Fan Wu said unfortunately, lots of men still have this 'she'll be right' attitude or just don't get around to looking after themselves, even when they're experiencing a problem.

"We see it time and time again. Most eye conditions can be easily managed or treated especially if it's picked up early, it's when things are left that it can get more complicated," Mr Wu said.

"We're talking about our eyes here and we only have one set of them, so we need to remember to look after them, whether that's wearing protective eye gear while doing home maintenance projects or whether it's seeing an optometrist when we have a problem."

Specsavers research also showed men will wait an average of two weeks after experiencing an eye injury or symptom before booking an appointment with a healthcare professional.

Mr Wu said in his experience, the worst offenders were men aged between 20 and 40, who had not experienced problems with their site, and therefore had not booked an eye check.

"Eye checks are not just giving prescriptions for glasses - they are for ocular health, and many common eye diseases," Mr Wu said.

"Nowadays here at Specsavers we have all different types of hospital-standard machines and all our tests are really friendly and we don't use anything that is invasive.

"You shouldn't be worried to have an eye check because it's not scary at all."

This week is Men's Health Week (June 14-20).