For men in Western Australia, skin cancer is not just a health issue - it is a major consequence of a lifetime spent outdoors, working in the sun and often ignoring changes to the skin until they become impossible to ignore.

WA has a particularly strong connection with outdoor work and lifestyle: tradies, farmers, miners, fishermen, sporting enthusiasts, Defence personnel and emergency services workers can all experience substantial cumulative UV exposure.

Men carry a heavier skin cancer burden

Men are more likely than women to develop several forms of skin cancer. Cancer Council WA notes that keratinocyte cancers - mainly basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) - occur at almost twice the incidence in men compared with women.

Melanoma is also more common in Australian men. Nationally, AIHW estimates that in 2025 approximately 10,187 men would be diagnosed with melanoma compared with 7,256 women. The age standardised incidence rate was estimated at 78 cases per 100,000 men, compared with 50 per 100,000 women.

WA's sun doesn't give blokes a free pass

Years of working, playing and living outdoors can add up.

For many WA men, UV exposure comes from:

• working on building sites and roads
• farming and rural work
• mining and outdoor industrial work
• fishing, boating and surfing
• camping and four wheel driving
• sport and recreation
• Defence and emergency-services work
• simply spending weekends outdoors with family and mates.

The problem is that UV damage is cumulative.  A few hours here and there might not seem significant, but years of repeated exposure can contribute to skin cancers later in life. Sunburn is particularly damaging, and melanoma risk increases with significant UV exposure and episodes of sunburn.