NYTimes.com: Health Disparities Persist for Men, and Doctors Ask Why

I am amazed that the New York Times finally covered this fairly. They even give the prostate versus breast cancer disparity, and they quote the Men's Health Network, which is an excellent organization that is seriously concerned about men's issues (including male victims of domestic violence). They quote a feminist giving her typical "we don't need a men's health office" BS, but then the article goes on to show exactly why we DO need one. To see the article without having to register, go to http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20061114/news_1n14men.html

Letters to the editor can be sent to letters@nytimes.com

An article like that in NYT means that things really began to change. Slowly and sporadically, though. How far these changes are going to reach - time will tell.

Thanks for the link, Marc.

I'm suprised to see discussion on this topic come from anywhere other than a men's activism source.

society, the government, etc. has determined that a females well being supercedes that of male. could you guys imagine if the life expectancy was reversed? It would be a national crisis. I agree, a major publication identifing this issue is a good start. Why would any parent with sons ignore such an important health issue?

a males well being:

1. men don't live as long (yet the govt. spends more money on female healthcare)

2. more men committ suicide

3. more men die from work related injures

4. more men are homeless

5. gential mutilation at birth

6. more male infants die at birth

I realize you guys are aware of these issues, but it shows that the "so called" privileged gender isn't so privileged.

Exactly Marc. The feminist's hatred and of men stood out like a sore thumb. Just like the feminist response to the "Boy Crisis" issue where they say that "boys don't **really** need anything, well, maybe underpriveleged boys." They show their true colors and their lack of compassion for anyone but women. Most people will see that and realize their bigotry. This is great!

Warren Farrell devotes an entire chapter to the politics of gender health myths and realities in his book THE MYTH OF MALE POWER. In Chapter 7 – "Why Do Women Live Longer?" – Farrell looks at all the evidence of disparity in health care and research funding and concludes that men are socially defined as "the disposable sex."

• "When we learn that nonwhites have about 80 percent of the chance of whites to reach age 85, we know that it is because of the relative powerlessness of nonwhites. But … a boy infant is only half as likely as a girl infant to live to age 85."
• "Blacks die earlier than whites from 12 of the 15 leading causes of death. Men die earlier than women from all 15 of the leading causes of death."
• "In industrialized societies, early deaths are caused more by diseases triggered by stress, which breaks down the immune system. It is since stress has become the key factor that men have died so much sooner than women."
• "No governmental agency focusing on health spends as much on men’s health as on women’s health. The reason less than 20% of the research budget of the NIH is spent on women’s health is because 85% of the research budget is spent on NON-GENDER-specific health issues (or basic science); 10% is spent on women’s health; 5% is spent on men’s health. (This is the analysis of the NIH’s Office on Research of WOMEN’s Health.)"

The rad-feminist quoted in the article as stating that there is no need for a national men's health office because historically men have received the majority of research attention is both deluded and ideologically contaminated.

I'm confident that she sees no reasons to examine the boy's schooling crisis, the disproportionate mortality of men in workplace deaths, the 7x higher suicide rate for recently divorced men, etc, etc.

The feminists invented the term "The Gender Wars," and I believe we should take them at their word...

It is indeed becoming a "zero sum" game.

You guys have magaged to change my opinion on circumcision..In a previous thread I brushed that issue off, indicating that I did not believe it to be a men's rights issue. That viewpoint was wrong.

-axolotl

"We’ve got men dying at higher rates of just about every disease, and we don’t know why," said Dr. Demetrius J. Porche

Is this guy being PC, or is he totally clueless? So what if research in the past has "focused" on male subjects..women have still reaped the rewards of this research, just as men have. On the other hand, the massive campaigns and media exposure given to women's health issues over the last 30 years, and the creation of special hospitals, departments and programs for women, has UNDENIABLY been the main cause of the disparity between the sexes here. It is not a question of "why are men dying sooner?", as much as one of "why are women living so much longer now, while men's life expectancy has not gone up correspondingly?". Those are two subtly different questions. And the answer is as I have given above, among other possible factors.

-Axolotl