The Next Endangered Species -- Men?
Nov. 5, 2001 --The health gap between men and women widens every year. Men die sooner. Each of the 15 leading causes of death is more likely to kill them. Men have growing rates of psychological problems. Men are more likely to die as crime victims. Men shun doctors when they are sick and avoid checkups when they are well.
Are men going extinct? That's the provocative question posed by the 2001 First World Congress on Men's Health, an annual meeting of men's health experts.
"Will men be needed at all?" wonders conference chairman Siegfried Meryn, MD, in the Nov. 3 issue of the British Medical Journal. "With the advent of sperm banks, in vitro fertilization, sex-sorting techniques, sperm-independent fertilization of eggs with somatic cells, human cloning, and same-sex marriage, it is reasonable to wonder about the future role of men in society."
The problem doesn't seem to be in men's genes. When figures first started being kept in 1920, women only outlived men by one year. Ever since, women's life expectancy has increased faster than that of men.
"The question is not why women live longer than men. It's why did the increase in male life expectancy fail to keep pace with improvements in women's life expectancy," Emory University researcher Jean Bonhomme, MD, MPH, tells WebMD. Bonhomme is a board member of the nonprofit Men's Health Network and president of the National Black Men's Health Network.
The answer, Bonhomme suggests, is that men don't get the same kinds of regular, preventive healthcare as women. They don't get it partly because they don't seek it.
"Since childhood, the sexes are taught to deal with physical pain differently," Bonhomme says. "A boy who scrapes his knee is told to stop crying and be a man. But when that boy is 50 years old and having chest pain, he will say, 'It's just indigestion,' because he's been taught to minimize his pain. ... A lot of men who don't feel good don't pay it any mind. When it comes to disease, early treatment is critical. Men miss out on this opportunity."
The Next Endangered Species -- Men?
Nov. 5, 2001 --The health gap between men and women widens every year. Men die sooner. Each of the 15 leading causes of death is more likely to kill them. Men have growing rates of psychological problems. Men are more likely to die as crime victims. Men shun doctors when they are sick and avoid checkups when they are well.
Are men going extinct? That's the provocative question posed by the 2001 First World Congress on Men's Health, an annual meeting of men's health experts.
"Will men be needed at all?" wonders conference chairman Siegfried Meryn, MD, in the Nov. 3 issue of the British Medical Journal. "With the advent of sperm banks, in vitro fertilization, sex-sorting techniques, sperm-independent fertilization of eggs with somatic cells, human cloning, and same-sex marriage, it is reasonable to wonder about the future role of men in society."
The problem doesn't seem to be in men's genes. When figures first started being kept in 1920, women only outlived men by one year. Ever since, women's life expectancy has increased faster than that of men.
"The question is not why women live longer than men. It's why did the increase in male life expectancy fail to keep pace with improvements in women's life expectancy," Emory University researcher Jean Bonhomme, MD, MPH, tells WebMD. Bonhomme is a board member of the nonprofit Men's Health Network and president of the National Black Men's Health Network.
The answer, Bonhomme suggests, is that men don't get the same kinds of regular, preventive healthcare as women. They don't get it partly because they don't seek it.
"Since childhood, the sexes are taught to deal with physical pain differently," Bonhomme says. "A boy who scrapes his knee is told to stop crying and be a man. But when that boy is 50 years old and having chest pain, he will say, 'It's just indigestion,' because he's been taught to minimize his pain. ... A lot of men who don't feel good don't pay it any mind. When it comes to disease, early treatment is critical. Men miss out on this opportunity."
SHARE
