BIO-218X
5/30/18
Cadet Delaney-Manuel
Male and Female Health Gap
In our country, healthcare is a hard topic of debate. When it comes to gender in healthcare, although many diseases run through both male and female people, there are certain diseases which are more prevalent in one sex more than the other. This occurs mainly because of biological such as reproductive function, concentration of sex hormones, and expression of genes on X and Y chromosomes. Men, in the field of disease, tend to get Parkinson’s disease, skin cancer, ALS, HIV, and autism more than females do. One example of a behavioral reason to be more susceptible to a disease for men is skin cancer. On average, men tend to spend more time in the sun than women do. When it comes to HIV, men who have sex with other men are highly susceptible to contract HIV. Women Tend to get more mental disorders over males. Many times this happens because women have lower self-esteem, tendency for body shame, and experience sexual abuse along with gender inequality.
Men and women also have different social tendencies which affect the health gap that is prevalent. Women in the household are the gateway to healthcare for their homes. Men usually don’t even make doctors appointments for themselves. The women make the appointments and tell their husbands to go to the appointments. Why is this? Some believe that our culture of the “manly man” have made some men think that going to the doctors is a display of weakness. This is a mindset which should be changed immediately because the doctors office is not at all a place that people should avoid at all. Men also hide their depression more than females because of the social stigma of the manly man. This reflects to the large gap between Male and female suicides. Men have a much larger suicide number than females do.
The workforce also have an impact on healthcare.along with the social features that make women more responsible when it comes to healthcare, men tend to have the more dangerous jobs. This leads to men having higher work related injuries. Unfortunately, this does not reflect the only injury types that males are susceptible to. Males tend to make ill advised decisions more than females as well. Binge drinking, stunts to improve their friends, and other manly activities lead to these male injuries. A unfortunate but also positive disorder that occurs in males is erectile disfunction. Erectile disfunction brings many males to actively visit the doctors. Although not being able to “be a man” and please your woman, many times doctors find prostate problems in these men. this would never be found if these men did not visit the doctors for their disorder.
Help Received: Powerpoint slides
Noah Delaney-Manuel