Life expectancy for men is five years old in relation to life expectancy for women in the United States, some researchers and doctors claim that more attention to the health of men could fill the gap .
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Men do not live as long as women. In the United States, life expectancy for a man is around 76 years old, against 81 for a woman. Some doctors and public health experts say that fewer men would die too early if more attention was paid to the health of men. Ashley Milne-Tyte reports.
Ashley Milne-Tyte: Some of you may think, hang on, women’s health has been sidelined for years. Until the last decades, most clinical studies have been carried out on men. Derek Griffith knows it. He is a professor of health equity and health health at the University of Pennsylvania. However, he says …
Derek Griffith: It is not a zero -sum game. We can promote equality, equity of women, opportunities while focusing on the health and well-being of men.
Milne-Tyte: Griffith is alarmed that the gap of longevity between men and women in the United States has widened in the past two decades. He says that more research is necessary on why. Of the 15 main causes of death, cancer and heart disease to accidents and suicide, he says that men get out of almost all. And they are not the only affected.
Griffith: If men are fighting in terms of health, well-being and so on, it tends to put not only a burden for these men but on women of their lives.
Milne-Tyte: So he says that for everyone’s good, there should be more emphasis on the factors that affect the physical and mental health of men. There are men’s health centers in the United States, although many focus only on sexual health. The Preston Robert Tisch Center for Men’s Health in New York offers complete care. Dr. Steven Lamm directs the center. He says they aim to make things practical for men, who generally do not want to spend a lot of time with the doctor.
Steven Lamm: The patient has a knee sprain? Get the radiography here. Do you think they can have a clot in their leg? Get ultrasound.
Milne-Tyte: He says that traditionally, men have not gone to the doctor as often as women.
Lamm: You know, they have always been told to suck it. And so, unfortunately, rather than looking for preventive care, they waited for something broken.
Milne-Tyte: Today, he sees more young men for controls than ever, which gives him hope for their future health. However, he said, for many guys under economic stress …
Lamm: their health is not their priority. They don’t have time to take care of themselves. They will not approach their weight. They just have trouble paying the bills.
Milne -Tyte: And for many men, think of their health – especially if something is wrong – is uncomfortable. Jack Rainer de Toryon, in North Carolina, is 70 years old now but says when he was young …
Jack Rainer: I read Superman’s comics, and we learned how the steel man could do everything. And it is therefore, in many ways, how I learned psychologically what it meant to be masculine.
Milne-Tyte: He was shocked to discover, a few years ago, that he had an aggressive form of prostate cancer. Part of the treatment involved withdrawing testosterone from your body, and the effects took it off guard.
Rainer: the elimination of the meaning of masculinity left me without what I called GOPPTE.
Milne-Tyte: He felt vulnerable in a way that he had never had before. Widowed, Rainer says that friends helped him pass the treatment. Today, he is without cancer, but he says that he must accept that he is not as dynamic as 40 years old, and it is difficult.
Rainer: I am very considering what it means to be 70, reasonably in good health, and how I want to live in the next iteration of the trip.
Milne-Tyte: He says that being at this stage of life has the impression of entering the unknown.
For NPR News, I am Ashley Milne-Tyte.
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