Answer is held by male in discomfort (7)
I believe the answer is:
malaise
'discomfort' is the definition.
(I know that malaise is a type of discomfort)
'answer is held by male' is the wordplay.
'answer' becomes 'a' (abbreviation eg in Q and A).
'held by' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'a'+'is'='ais'
'ais' going inside 'male' is 'MALAISE'.
'in' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for malaise that I've seen before include "Out-of-sorts feeling" , "flu perhaps" , "General feeling of discomfort" , "Unease; lethargy" , "depression" .)