As the Gender Lifespan Gap Widens, Efforts to Prioritize Men’s Health Intensify

In a Nutshell: You’ve probably heard of the gender lifespan gap between men and women. New research shows that women now outlive men by 5.8 years. The national nonprofit Men’s Health Network encourages men to become more proactive and build earlier and closer relationships with their doctors. Reducing the gender lifespan gap lessens its negative impact on families, communities, and the economy.

If you took a poll of the general public, I bet that most would say women have always lived significantly longer than men and that genetics or biology was at the root.

But that’s not the case. In fact, gender differences in life expectancy have seen significant shifts even within the relatively brief span of American history.

Before the Industrial Revolution, research shows the gap in life expectancy between American men and women was narrow. By the 1920s and ’30s, the effects of 19th-century industrialization and urbanization, in conjunction with a cascade of social and cultural changes, began to skew the ratio.

Things are getting worse. Recent research from Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and the University of California San Francisco shows the gender lifespan gap widening from 4.8 years in 1996 to 5.8 years in 2021.

You may think a one-year increase isn’t much, but it represents thousands of families losing caregivers and breadwinners each year. With disproportionately more men out of the economy, productivity takes an extra hit, and the healthcare system and social safety net take on an extra burden.

While the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has an Office on Women’s Health, there is no corresponding office for men’s health. The national nonprofit Men’s Health Network (MHN) argues there’s something wrong with that — and many things fixable about the gap.

Our conversation with Director of Communications Jennifer Thompson highlighted MHN’s educational, research, and advocacy work, all ultimately aimed at reducing the negative impact of the gender lifespan gap on families, communities, and the economy. For Thompson, MHN shines when it probes the gap’s social determinants.

“I think we all agree that women are more likely to talk to their girlfriends about what’s going on with their bodies, and what’s going on in general — guys aren’t comfortable to do that,” Thompson said. “We try to get men to understand to be a good provider, it’s more than just you. Take your health seriously for your family or whatever else is important in your life.”

Thompson said indifference is the crux of the issue for most American men when it comes to healthcare. On average, guys — especially young men without a partner nagging them to visit a doctor — just don’t bother.

That’s exactly the way it was with me, by the way. Falling in love and getting married meant not just sunshine and rainbows but lessons in credit scores, health insurance, and mortgage rates. I truly believe I would never have learned to write intelligently about financial services while single.

Thompson said this indifference to health vulnerabilities is apparent even among boys and young men who pursue potentially dangerous sports in high school and college. Student-athletes may receive yearly physicals and have frequent contact with healthcare professionals, but Thompson said they’re not forming the same type of close relationships women typically form with their gynecologists.

“Once men stop doing sports, they fall out of the routine of checkups, blood work, and preventative care,” she said. “They wake up when they hit 45 and start to have things go wrong.”

That’s why MHN, which devotes much attention and resources to influencing the national healthcare debate, networking with healthcare providers, and collecting and analyzing data about men’s health, also spends time and money spreading awareness.

“We promote awareness periods throughout the year: Testicular Cancer Awareness Month in April, Men’s Health Month and Men’s Health Week in June (leading up to Father’s Day), Prostate Cancer Awareness Month in September, and much, much more,” Thompson said. “We campaign to wear blue for men’s mental health and promote awareness of diabetes, glaucoma, melanoma, and a variety of other health issues that disproportionately affect men.”

One recent study established that men are now more likely to die than women from all of the top 10 causes of death. MHN finds men more likely to work blue-collar jobs with little time off for healthcare but less likely to have health insurance.

Men also struggle against stigmas around weakness from admitting there’s a problem. The impact of these tendencies extends far beyond individuals.

“We see ourselves making an impact first at the family level, then at a community level, and then nationwide,” Thompson said. “From the bottom up.”

If anything, the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated an already bad situation. Coming out of the crisis, Thompson said many men haven’t resumed their regular doctor visits.

“Before the pandemic, we were making a lot of great strides,” she said. “Unfortunately, a lot of the progress that had been made was lost.”

As for answering why the gender lifespan gap is widening, Thompson recommends taking a fresh but hard look at the world around you. You’ll quickly realize the disproportionate impact of many economic, social, and cultural factors on men’s health.

For example, although many types of physically demanding jobs are declining in America, male-dominated blue-collar jobs are far more hazardous in the aggregate than work in general. Many of these jobs pay hourly and don’t accommodate taking time off.

In addition, denial can be a powerful impulse among American men. Thompson said men not suffering from intrusive symptoms are far more likely to deprioritize health concerns and put up with minor levels of discomfort.

Some even go so far as to decline employer-provided health insurance. That’s not good.

“They have this mentality that says, I’m healthy — I don’t need to go to the doctor,” Thompson said. “Why should I deduct this extra money from my paycheck to buy something I’m not even going to use?”

For older individuals, there’s the hazard of being downsized or classified as obsolete. Those who have been shut out of the opportunity to earn and express themselves through work may fall into substance abuse and other counterproductive behaviors.

Men are more likely to commit violent crimes, fall into homelessness, and die early due to so-called deaths of despair or suicide. Stigmas around male imperviousness to health concerns extend to mental health.

Among younger men, Thompson noted another unsettling trend: hesitancy to express any sort of “maleness” at all.

“A lot of these young men don’t feel comfortable expressing any type of masculinity, even healthy masculinity,” she said. “We recognize it and are trying to devise creative methods for reaching these young men.”

The challenge of communicating with these different types of men with the same problem leads MHN to interesting modes of expression. For example, Thompson said MHN is fond of using a car analogy to convince men to take their health seriously.

“You go regularly to get your car’s oil changed and your tires rotated,” she said. “Well, your body is the same way. It’s a machine you should want to take care of — your most vital machine.”

Since the pandemic, MHN has put more of its energy into influencing the policy debate, knocking on doors, making policy suggestions, and building out the Congressional Men’s Health Caucus.

As a small and what Thompson termed “scrappy” nonprofit, MHN funds its extensive research and advocacy work mainly through donations and a store.

It pushes extra hard for donation support during the many awareness periods it promotes, sending out digital media toolkits to help men’s health stakeholders get the message out.

The store offers educational literature and MHN swag. Many doctor’s offices and government agencies purchase MHN materials, as do trade associations and businesses that serve and employ high percentages of men.

“Even agencies like the FBI and CIA buy our literature,” Thompson said.

Hundreds of doctor-level advisory board members help MHN set its agenda. MHN takes what Thompson called a clinical approach to promotion to establish itself as the foremost speaker on each topic.

“Everything we do is rigorously vetted, tested, and checked by our doctors and our board,” Thompson said.

Thompson said readers who share MHN’s concerns can most effectively support its work through a donation or store purchase. Maybe someday, an office on men’s health in the Department of Health and Human Services will be here to tackle that lifespan gap.

“Guys, it’s not just about you,” Thompson said. “You can’t be there for others if you don’t take care of yourself.”