I presume you're not a woman, because there's cervical screening for women aged 25-64 every five years. Also depends on what you mean by "mid life", but there's breast screening offered to women aged 50-70 and bowel cancer screening offered to people from 50 to 74 every two years.

There are real trade-offs with screening, and screening too much has harms as well as too little, although I'm not qualified to make a judgement on where that line sits relative to where it is in the UK.

I don't want to pile into the - this is not true.

But it's not true. We get regular bowel cancer screening - you get it every 2 years once you hit 50 - https://www.nhs.uk/tests-and-treatments/bowel-cancer-screeni...

And there are also regular health checks available once you hit 40 - https://www.nhs.uk/tests-and-treatments/nhs-health-check/

That's not quite true - there's a 5 yearly Health Check which is offered to those over 40 with no other known health issues (in England, but Scotland/Wales/NI have similar schemes).

Local councils are responsible for arranging invitations for those not currently registered with GPs, so it ought to be more or less universal - though there are inevitably a few people who'll slip through the net.

It's pretty basic, but the evidence suggests it's been reasonably effective at dealing with the "he didn't see a doctor for 40 years and then just dropped dead from a heart attack" stereotype.

https://www.nhs.uk/tests-and-treatments/nhs-health-check/

In the US it's entirely possible to do that as well. I've never been forced to see a doctor outside of getting a form signed before grad school.

> In the UK once you've had your childhood vaccinations it's entirely possible you'd simply never see a doctor again in your life until you're ready for your prostate exam in older life.

It's entirely possible to do this in the US, too, but it's not the default path. I know some people who think it's a point of pride to brag that they haven't been to a doctor in 20 years. I know other people who never miss their annual checkup and are frustrated that their doctors won't order every test they hear about from their podcasts. The US approach to healthcare is varied and confusing to outsiders, even if you remove all of the unreasonably complex insurance stuff from the equation.

> There are no regular checkups or preventative care on the NHS for mid life adults unless you're proactive

If you wanted to request an annual checkup, could you ask for one and get it without problem? Or would they require a specific reason to visit?

> In the UK once you've had your childhood vaccinations it's entirely possible you'd simply never see a doctor again in your life until you're ready for your prostate exam in older life.

It is not customary in the UK to see a doctor at regular intervals for checkups?

You can get sti tests and other tests as and when required or requested. I have had blood pressure checks, blood diagnostics etc offered regularly by my doctor. Usually they are just to rule things out but they definitely offered.

> “There are no regular checkups or preventative care on the NHS for mid life adults unless you're proactive”

This isn’t quite true. There is a free “NHS Health check” for adults aged 40-72, which you’re supposed to do every 5 years and includes basic checks like blood pressure and cholesterol. I certainly get messages from my GP nagging me about it from time to time.

Is that necessarily bad? I mean, aren't there studies showing that annual checkups don't make much difference in mortality or healthy longevity?

The downside of that model is that "be proactive" assumes people know what they should be proactive about

This isn’t true. Women have regular smear tests and there’s also the midlife MOT every 5 years, to give but two examples.

Birth control? Pap smear? Mammogram?

To be fair, almost nobody is going from childhood vaccinations > late-middle age without seeing a doctor. And when you do go with an ailment general blood tests seem pretty standard these days at GP's along with standard vitals checks. They also do preventive care where necessary. Every woman is invited for cervical screening once they turn 25 and then every few years until they're in their 60's. Regular mammograms are also a thing after a certain age/depending on risk factors. Bowel cancer screening too. STI testing is free and, depending on where you live, done by post. Also depending on your definition of 'childhood' there are a few vaccines given when you're a teenager (HPV for example). And if you ever travel you'll be visiting the doctor for vaccines then too.