It’s time men demanded action from their governments and health services to tackle the big problems with men’s health. We can no longer hope that politicians and doctors will, on their own, do what is needed. Quite simply, they must be persuaded, prodded and pushed. Read the rest of this entry »
I’ve been working as an advocate in the men’s health field for over 20 years but there are still moments when the significance of what I’m trying to do strikes me in a new and different way. About six months ago, when I was walking through the cemetery near my home in Brighton, on England’s south coast, I started to notice the inscriptions on the headstones of couples who had been interred side-by-side. Read the rest of this entry »
World Cancer Day (4 February 2016) provides a good opportunity to highlight the little-known fact that men are much more likely than women to develop and die from cancer – and by a considerable margin. The global male age-standardised cancer incidence rate is 205 per 100,000 and the male mortality rate is 126. The comparable respective figures for females are 165 and 83. Read the rest of this entry »
Men’s health is problematic in the UK, in Europe and globally. In the UK, male life expectancy, while steadily improving, still lags four years behind female life expectancy. In the EU, the gap is 5.5 years and globally it is six years. There is also, of course, a marked social gradient in male mortality. Recent UK data shows that life expectancy for newborn baby boys is highest in Kensington and Chelsea (83.3 years) and lowest in Blackpool (74.7 years). The social gradient for men is steeper than the gradient for women: deprivation and maleness are a particularly toxic combination. Read the rest of this entry »
Too many men die too young across the world. The statistics could not be much clearer: globally, male life expectancy, at 68 years, lags five years behind female life expectancy. There is not a single country in which men outlive women. Overall, the gap between the sexes has actually widened since 1970 and will widen further by 2030 – by then, male life expectancy is expected be seven years shorter than female life expectancy. Read the rest of this entry »
My Review of Ireland’s National Men’s Health Policy 2008-13 is now available. The Review was commissioned by the Health Service Executive.
Ireland was the first country in the world to adopt a national men’s health policy (followed by Australia and Brazil). Given the relatively recent emergence of ‘men’s health’ as an important public health issue, the Irish government’s recognition of the need to address it at the strategic policy level was clearly a very far-sighted and significant step and has been widely recognised as such. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s time boys were included in HPV vaccination programmes, most of which currently target girls only. A start has been made – gender-neutral vaccination is already happening in Austria, Australia, the United States and parts of Canada. The vaccination of boys will also start soon in Israel and is now recommended in Switzerland. But HPV does not respect national borders. The European Men’s Health Forum (EMHF) believes this very common but also nasty and dangerous sexually transmitted infection can only be tamed, and hopefully ultimately eliminated altogether, by comprehensive and international action to immunise both sexes. Read the rest of this entry »
The poor state of men’s health must be one of the biggest health issues routinely not talked about. It is ignored or sidelined by virtually all national governments and by global public health organisations, such as the World Health Organization. It is barely addressed by policymakers, professional organisations, public health non-governmental organisations, researchers, or practitioners. Dishearteningly, men’s health problems are sometimes seen as a source of amusement, with men even being described as ‘idiots.’
This blog was published in the BMJ on 2 March 2015. To read the full content, click here.
Advocates of men’s health have just received an unexpected but very welcome support from one of the most significant figures in public health globally. Professor Sir Michael Marmot has, for the first time, stated that ‘More focus on men’s health [is] needed.’ These few words could make a huge difference. Read the rest of this entry »
I have been asked by the Department of Health/Health Services Executive to carry out a review of the impact of Ireland’s National Men’s Health Policy 2008-2013. This review will also inform the future direction of men’s health policy in the context of Healthy Ireland. The Review will be undertaken between June and December 2014. Read the rest of this entry »