A Wake-up Call for the Guys – Men’s Health Month Brings Attention to Alarming Disparities

Anchored by a Congressional health education program, Men’s Health Month is celebrated across the country with screenings, health fairs, media appearances, and other health education and outreach activities.

The purpose of Men’s Health Month is to heighten the awareness of preventable health problems and encourage early detection and treatment of disease among men and boys. This month gives healthcare providers, public policy makers, the media, and individuals an opportunity to encourage men and boys to seek regular medical advice and early treatment for disease and injury. The response has been overwhelming, with thousands of awareness activities across the U.S. and around the globe.

“There is a silent health crisis in America — that fact that, on average, American men live sicker and die younger than American women,” said Dr. David Gremillion of Men’s Health Network.

The statistics back up that assertion. Men die at higher rates than women from nine of the top 10 causes of death and are the victims of more than 92{06cf2b9696b159f874511d23dbc893eb1ac83014175ed30550cfff22781411e5} of workplace deaths. In 1920, women lived, on average, one year longer than men. Now, men, on average, die almost five years earlier than women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Speaking of prevention, women are 100{06cf2b9696b159f874511d23dbc893eb1ac83014175ed30550cfff22781411e5} more likely to visit the doctor for annual examinations and preventive services than men.

Meanwhile, the chance of being a homicide victim places African-American men at unusually high risk — six times more likely than white men, in fact, and more than 16 times more likely than white women.

In addition, depression and suicide remain largely undiagnosed in men, contributing to the fact that men are four times likelier than women to commit suicide. Among ages 15 to 19, boys are more than three times likelier than girls to end their own lives, while men in the 20-24 age range are six times likelier than women to commit suicide — the same disparity as in the 65-and-older age group.

While 115 males are conceived for every 100 females, the male fetus is at greater risk of miscarriage and stillbirth; in fact, 25{06cf2b9696b159f874511d23dbc893eb1ac83014175ed30550cfff22781411e5} more newborn males die than females, and three in five victims of sudden infant death syndrome are boys.

There are other disparities. Men suffer hearing loss at twice the rate of women, while testosterone is linked to elevations of LDL, the bad cholesterol, and declines in HDL, the good cholesterol. In addition, men have fewer infection-fighting T-cells and are thought to have weaker immune systems than women.

As a result of these factors and others, by the age of 100, women outnumber men eight to one.