The Elevated Mortality of Men

2010-04-03
By

We all know that men live shorter lives than women, but we don’t really know why, since there’s no definitive research available that explains the shorter lifespan of men. However, there are lots of pertinent facts available that go a long way towards explaining the gender gap in life expectancy:

  • Men are usually the primary providers for the family, and the burden of providing can easily become a form of chronic stress.
  • Dangerous jobs are performed by men, and as a result, a number of men die each year.
  • Suicides are far more common among men than among women.
  • Men make up the bulk of the homeless, and this kind of lifestyle often leads to a premature death.
  • It’s more common for men to be socially isolated and not have a single close friend, which can have a negative effect on your health.
  • Men aren’t taught to seek help for psychological and psychiatric issues, which leads to increased levels of alcoholism and premature deaths.
  • Men are violently killed more often than women.
  • It’s not unusual for men to be removed from their children as well as lose touch with friends of the family after a divorce, which can lead to isolation, alcoholism, etc.
  • Due to historical factors men are only valued for their performance, which again can lead to chronic stress.

As you can see, trying to explain the premature deaths of men becomes a virtual summary of the most pressing contemporary men’s issues.

In addition to these social, phychological and structural explanations, there may of course be biological factors that explain why men have shorter life spans. However, there is emerging evidence that innate biological factors are not the main culprit here.

Hopefully, the new subject Male Studies can help shed more light on this topic in the future. Make sure you sign up for the April 7 webcast, where this new academic discipline will start to take shape.

Pelle Billing is an M.D. who writes and lectures about men’s issues and gender liberation beyond feminism.

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  • http://jayhammers.blogspot.com/ Jay Hammers

    Good summary, Pelle.

  • http://avoiceformen.com/ Paul Elam

    Spot on correct, Dr. Billing. As these matters are studied I think we may be in for a lot of startling information about “traditional” masculinity and mortality.

  • http://shatterdmen.com/ Shatteredmen

    We also need to look at wars. In almost every war, all but a few of those who die are men and most are of those men are young. Many are 18 to 20 and this number would tend to lower the overall average. Major wars such as the two world wars killed huge numbers of men and I would tend to think that those numbers showed up quickly on life expectancy tables.
    Along with this we have pollution which is causing many more infants to die with the majority of them being the males. Although normally more boys are born than girls, this has changed with the pollution and in fact, one area in Canada, there are now three girls being born for each boy. Of course this is not effecting the life expectancy since only life births effect it but I contend that it does show we need to do something about pollution in order to protect our males

  • Bruno

    So the conclusion for men who want to live longer is simple: start living like a woman: don’t do sports, don’t exercise, don’t do a demanding job, don’t work yourself into a sweat in the bedroom…. take it easy. You’ll live longer.

  • Trust

    Good list.

    One I may add, though not misandric, is what my family’s doctor told me. Women, due to nature, tend to require more doctor visits to various types of doctors than men, and ironically the factors that cause them more health problems and more doctors visits result in them receiving more preventative care.

    But I do think our societal misandry plays a role.

  • http://bobstruth.blogspot.com Bob Allen

    Longevity of a population of subpopulation is an overall measure of how well, or how poorly, the population is treated or mistreated. The shorter lives of men compared to longer lives of females is an absolute measure of the difference in how western society favors females over men in all parts of life. The reasons for each death is unique, but in average the whole population favors females so they do not die as young as men.

  • pj1

    The new federal health care system has favored the health of women over men by establishing even more federal offices which will oversee specifics regarding women’s health. I expect over time the lifespan discrepancy favoring women will widen.

    Consider that daily life style choices factor into long term health statistics. In MSM, women get marketed (for the most part) healthy lifestyles choices as a result of ample advocacy relating to health. The male audience gets fast fatty food and beer advertised to us.

    A federal office for men’s health (as much as I dislike the idea of a larger government) makes sense… MRA’s missed the boat again on this issue, NOW was in bed with Obama and Pelosi advocating for women and drafted another big win for the truly privileged class in our country.

  • SingleDad

    @ Bob Allen

    You get the prize. It doesn’t matter why, longevity is one of the best predictor of how a population or subpopulation are treated.

    MRA should never rest until that metric is equal.

  • Red0660

    Men are actually the only gender who are required to sacrifice our bodies and the fruits of it’s labor to the other.

    When a boy turns 18 he must sign over his bodily sovereignty to the State for use in military service.

    When a man marries he must sign over the use of his body and the fruits of its labor to a woman both in marriage and after divorce.

    In case anyone hasn’t noticed a woman’s body is her choice and she also has COMPLETE OWNERSHIP of the fruits of it’s labor.

  • Red0660

    PJ1: YOU SAY: “The new federal health care system has favored the health of women over men by establishing even more federal offices which will oversee specifics regarding women’s health.”

    WOW ARE YOU SERIOUS. Women already have 7 federal offices on their health. 5 in the DHHS and 2 in the Dept. of Agriculture. Wow, so men still have ZERO offices on our health and well-being.

    Men’s suffering is only relevant in proportion to how it affects the suffering and wellbeing of women. Perhaps we can raise awareness that men can not be good servants to women unless our health is taken care of.. I mean how do women expect us to be able to sacrifice the fruits of our working labor to them especially after divorce.

    I think that as men are the only sex who does not have choice over our bodies and the fruits of it’s labor as women do that the country and women would take interest. Men’s bodies are to serve women and country. Women’s bodies are their choice and so are the fruits of its labor.






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