A silent crisis in men's health gets worse

[Mosby]

A silent crisis in men’s health is shortening the life spans of fathers, husbands, brothers and sons.

For years, the conventional wisdom has been that a lack of sex-specific health research mainly hurts women and gender minorities. While those concerns are real, a closer look at longevity data tells a more complicated story.

Across the life span — from infancy to the teen years, midlife and old age — the risk of death at every age is higher for boys and men than for girls and women.

The result is a growing longevity gap between men and women. In the United States, life expectancy in 2021 was 79.1 years for women and 73.2 years for men. That 5.9-year difference is the largest gap in a quarter-century. (The data aren’t parsed to include differences among nonbinary and trans people.)

“Men are advantaged in every aspect of our society, yet we have worse health outcomes for most of the things that will kill you,” said Derek Griffith, director of Georgetown University’s Center for Men’s Health Equity in the Racial Justice Institute.“We tend not to prioritize men’s health, but it needs unique attention, and it has implications for the rest of the family. It means other members of the family, including women and children, also suffer.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/04/17/mens-health-longevity-gap/

[Diamond_Dog]

1. Men and boys take more risks

Drive more aggressively, participate in riskier sports, don’t watch their diet. And it’s considered weak to a lot of men to take care of their health or see a doctor. Look how Dump hid the fact he got the Covid vaccine for fear of looking “weak”.

[Deuxcents]

2. If this is so..

Then why is it that most medical trials do not include women in their studies? It’s only been recently that the difference in heart attack symptoms are not the same in men and women. All data should have results from trials for men and women.

[Mosby]

3. The article talks about that

The irony is that men for years have been overrepresented in medical research, often at the expense of women, according to a seminal 1985 report that prompted more government investment in women’s health research.

“Men who were overrepresented in medical studies before are still underrepresented in terms of clinical care,” said Harvey Simon, an internal medicine physician and founder of Harvard Men’s Health Watch, a newsletter devoted to men’s health.

Lack of support

Men’s health advocates say one of the biggest factors is a lack of infrastructure to support research specifically focused on men’s health.

For years, the Men’s Health Network has lobbied for the creation of an Office of Men’s Health, similar to the Office of Women’s Health in Health and Human Services Department. Proposed legislation, however, has consistently failed to win support.

[unc70]

4. Men are expendable

Only slight joking. Possibly the most common reason women were excluded from experiments was the fear of harm to women of child bearing age, particularly if they are or become pregnant during the study but also after the end of the experiment.

[gay texan]

5. Mental health

Real mean don't cry

[No Vested Interest]

6. Because of pregnancy and other reproductive issues, women see doctors regularly

throughout their child-bearing years. Vitals and women's organs other than reproductive are therefore checked more regularly than in those in men's bodies. Men very often do not visit physicians or have medical intervention for most of their adult lives, unless they noticeably contract an illness or are in an accident, etc.

It's men themselves who do not prioritize their own health; most wives and family would be happy to have men tend to health issues.