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Health
Men's Health
Increasing
EU focus on gender-specific health needs.
A policy document
prepared by the European Men's Health Forum (EMHF).
Did you know
that men suffer from breast cancer too? Popularly known as a women's
disease, osteoporosis also affects 1 in 8 European men. In the UK
as in several other European countries, many more men commit suicide
than die in road traffic accidents. Death rates for men under the
age of 65 are dramatically and consistently much higher than for
women.
Currently, the
highest male life expectancy of any European country does not reach
the shortest female equivalent and in 2020, the male average will
only reach that of women in the 1980's.
Important gender-based
health inequalities subsist, causing many to unnecessarily suffer
and in most cases die prematurely.
Although differences
in cultures may alter perceptions and attitudes to health, men remain
misinformed; they tend to take excessive risks with their health,
and are often reluctant to seek medical help and delay diagnosis
and treatment. In addition, health services are not yet adapted
to meet gender-related population needs.
Men's poor record
with regard to key health determinants such as smoking, alcohol
consumption, nutrition, and health education generally, tends to
indicate that the potential for action with men in these areas may
lead to significant global health benefits. Men should then be considered
a key population group for actions by the European Commission.
Doing nothing
is no longer an option. Men's poor health impacts on the well-being
of women and children and the resulting economic burden to society,
be it in terms of loss of productivity or health care costs, will
continue to escalate.
To ensure that,
in future EU health debates, appropriate considerations are introduced
to reduce gender-based inequalities, the European Men's Health Forum
calls on Members of the European Parliament to sign up to the following
points:
- Greater
consideration must be given to men's health in the agenda of the
EU institutions. While most EU health-related issues have an impact
on men's health, an integrated approach into other areas such as
environment, education, working conditions, ethnicity and migration-related
issues is also important.
- Health
care resources must be earmarked to help prevent and diagnose men's
health conditions earlier. The development of conclusive research
providing guidance on EU cancer screening programmes for prostate
would be a logical complement to actions already taken for breast,
cervical and colorectal cancer.
- The situation
in Eastern Europe needs our attention too. Beside the need for improved
access to health care resources in these countries, fast changing
economic conditions seem to have a particularly great impact on
men and, as a result, their families. This concern is echoed by
the WHO Europe.
- EU support
is needed to develop further research to examine in more detail
the causes of these inequalities and to monitor the progression
of the health situation by gender.
I declare my
support for the viewpoints expressed above by the European Men's
Health Forum.
John Bowis
MEP.
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