Gender health gap

Patrick Keller

Help Received: Power points, Class discussions, personal experience

Men and women have different sets of health issues that face them. There is some overlap in conditions but there are also illnesses that are unique to one sex or the other. While I do think that the problems facing men and women are different I don’t necessarily think that one problem set is necessarily worse than the other as there are pretty terrible conditions facing either group. For example there are illnesses  that are more common in men such as: Parkinson’s, skin cancer (Because we are dumb and think we are too good for sunscreen), ALS, HIV(Gay population), and Autism. Women also have a different set of illnesses they face such as: Chronic Kidney Disease, Alzheimer’s, osteoporosis, breast cancer and complications from pregnancy. One thing that affects heath in either gender is gender roles. Gender roles have the ability to discourage either gender from seeking medical assistance. Gender roles can also cause mental problems in both males and females.

Women obviously face some significant physical health issues that males do not. Men do not have to deal with as many issues as far as reproductive health goes and they do not have to deal with pregnancy and its complications. Gender roles also put almost all of the responsibility for contraception on the female. These expectation also put most of the responsibility and blame on females for pregnancy and abortion. This is wrong as it takes two to make a baby but often the baby daddy gets the hell out of doge and leaves the mother to provide for the baby, then when the girl gets an abortion when she cant support the kid she gets ostracized for doing so or even calling them murderers. Even if the kid is born women are expected to stay at home take care of the kids and they lose their ability to have jobs and do the things they enjoy which causes depression and other mental health problems.

Men have a couple significant issues facing them that women do not necessarily deal with. The gender role of men is the head of the household, the protectors the fighters. Your not supposed to cry, show weakness, or talk about your issues. You are supposed to look invincible especially to your spouse. So this creates significant problems when men have health issues as they have a tendency to try and “solider  through it” until it gets really bad. This is especially true with sexual heath as the last thing guys want to do is admit they have problems with sex as that is a large source of pride to a man. the dark side of this coin is that because we don’t talk to others about our issues we keep it bottled up inside which is why the suicide rate for men is super high. Speaking from experience this has the ability to make you feel backed into a corner with no way out as you don’t want to show weakness. Especially at a place like VMI where the suicide rate has been historically extremely high (and even encouraged or forced at certain times in history) you have to force yourself to find at least a few people that you trust and talk to them regularly, even if your very busy. It’s so so easy to get overwhelmed and feel alone you have to keep engaged with your buddies and support each other otherwise you will lose your mind.