Most western countries now have their own women’s health group and topics from ovarian cancer to cystitis are widely discussed in households across the globe.
Men’s health on the other hand is still practically a taboo subject, even in the EU. Five years ago the European Men’s Health Forum (EMHF) was set up to redress the balance. The Brussels-based group campaigns to push problems from testicular cancer to impotence higher up the political agenda.
“Men and women are often faced with completely different health issues,” says EMHF Director Erick Savoye. “Governments target men and women with the same health policies but one policy doesn’t suit all. We need to separate them.”
Savoye says men are currently left out of the political loop when it comes to health. “Men are never consulted on health campaigns. Health messages are almost always designed and developed by women because traditionally they have more experience in the area. That isn’t a criticism but I don’t see how they can fully understand male health problems.”
“EMHF was not developed in reaction to the women’s health movement,” Savoye explains. “The two are inextricably linked and we work with women’s health groups including EIWH [the European Institute of Women’s Health]”.
“But there are biological differences between men and women. ‘Health equality’ is a misnomer, it doesn’t exist. We are trying to get health equity – developing the same attitude to women’s health and men’s.”
Savoye mentions breast cancer and prostate cancer as an example of attention focusing on the female problem.
More than one man an hour dies of prostate cancer in the EU, according to EMHF, and Savoye points to recent research suggesting that before the end of the decade it will be more common among men than lung cancer. More research is needed to find out why some men develop prostate cancer and others do not, according to the men’s health group.
For many diseases however the research has already been done. The problem is making sure it is more widely known and properly understood, says Savoye.
One in five cases of osteoporosis occurs in men, he says, adding that since male bones are more brittle osteoporosis is also likely to be fatal more quickly in a man. Because osteoporosis is widely considered an exclusively female problem however, even doctors are often slow to diagnose the disease in male patients.
Diabetes is also under-diagnosed in men, he continues, and impotence is too easily written off as a problem linked to lifestyle or psychology, rather than a possible symptom of an illness such as heart disease.
This is just one example showing that research is needed into ways of breaking decades-old expectations, says Savoye. “In society we all behave in a very gendered way. Boys are taught that men don’t cry, but girls talk about health from a very early age. Men need to get more engaged,” he adds.
“We are not saying all men should go to the doctor’s tomorrow but they do need to be more proactive.”
The burden does not however all fall on male shoulders, he concludes. “A lot also needs to be done by policy- makers. We need more appropriate and better adapted men’s health policies and more attentive health professionals. Every doctor studies gynaecology and female psychology as part of his or her training, but they get nothing for men.”