Men's health is in dire straits. But don't expect men - or the Government - to be concerned about that. So what if men die about six years younger than women? They have to die sometime and men aren't shouting about it. No votes in that. The Europe Against Cancer Campaign, which is being launched today, focuses on men and cancer. It's an initiative which is sorely needed. Prostate cancer (yes only men have prostates) is almost as common in men as breast cancer is in women. Moreover, almost five times as many men die from prostate cancer as the number of women who die from cervical cancer. Testicular cancer is the most common form of cancer in young men aged 15 to 44. As many as one in 273 Irish men will develop it - and some will needlessly die because of failure to detect it in time. And melanoma kills more men than women - even though more women than men get it.
Why? Because men don't want the hassle and expense of queuing in a doctor's surgery to have what will probably turn out to be a harmless mole checked out. Men would probably avail of a telephone medical service (which could charge premium rates) the aim of which would be to advise callers whether or not a consultation with a doctor was advisable. Such a service could eliminate wasted journeys and encourage the caller to visit his GP where a consultation is deemed advisable.
So why do men look after their cars but ignore their own health? Psychotherapist Clive Garland believes men are comfortable looking after external things because an object doesn't require anything back from them emotionally. He believes men ignore their emotional and physical health - until they get a shock - because of a fear of self-knowledge and intimacy: "There may be a denial of death in it. If you let this in at all, you'll face huge areas inside yourself." Men like to be - are perhaps fashioned by nature to be - a bridge between the external world and the family. They tend to leave the emotional work to the female. Soldiers back from the trenches of the first World War often suffered what was called war neurosis. Garland believes this was in part due to their experience of being forced into a closeness with their fellow soldiers upon whom their lives depended. They saw men being blown up or their comrades breaking down. They were forced into an intimate bonding with their comrades which demanded physical and emotional dependency.
That intimacy and dependency broke down their defences - and they experienced aspects of humanity more stereotypically associated with the female: interdependency, the fear of separation, emotional nurturing and caring for the sick and the lame. But how can we explain the fatalism men adopt when it comes to their health? Such an attitude is summed up by comments like: "Bad for you - so what?" No point being the healthiest corpse in the cemetery." "When your time's up, your time's up." Garland says men's fatalism is a ploy to prevent them having to get in touch with their emotional selves. A powerful anxiety prevents men from entering this domain. He believes men's feelings go along the lines of: "I'd prefer to live my life not knowing about the demons inside me. If I go into that, I might be totally lost."' Sean and Liam Regan, cofounders of TWINS - a support group for twins - believe men have traditionally received no education or role models who encourage them to explore their health, be it emotional, mental or spiritual: "Men tend not to talk about the inner world of emotions but hold everything in until they are forced to address `disease' only when it manifests in a physical way."
Like Garland, they believe the possibility of sickness brings a man into contact with his fears, doubts and vulnerabilities which could be thought of as "unmanly". The brothers point out that in mythology, the hero's journey is one of outward exploration, whereas that of the heroine is inward exploration and holding things together - health, family and the home. Fine Gael TD Brian Hayes tried last February to generate a debate about men in Irish society. He said that men's health and well-being needed to be examined, given the state of men's health, the high male suicide rate and the emotional, family and social effects of male unemployment. He proposed the establishment of a commission on the status of men as one possible way to address these problems.
Hayes told The Irish Times last week that he believes politicians don't want to speak about men's issues lest they be viewed as anti-woman. He says the Government has no intention of advancing his proposal and he thinks Minister of State Mary Wallace's rejection of his proposal in the Dail last February was disparaging and missed the point. Wallace said she couldn't see a need for the commission. She rejected the suggestion that "in some way, men stand at a disadvantage in society". Men were "not a beleaguered species", she said. Rather, men continued "to hold a dominant position in society". Not only could she see no need for such a commission but, she concluded, such a forum would be "wasteful of time and resources".
Men's Health, The Common Sense Approach by Joe Arm- strong, based on his Man Alive men's health column in The Irish Times, will be published next year by Gill & Macmillan.
???????din McCarthy, helpline coordinator co-ordinator with the anorexia and bulimia support group Bodywhys, says up to 10 per cent of people with eating disorders are male but men find it even more difficult than women to admit to it.
Even in the womb, male fatality rates are disproportionately high, while most babies born with congenital abnormalities are male. Moreover, the mortality rate in the first year of life is higher for males than for females. Psychotherapist Clive Garland says it's as if men think there's something selfish about taking care of themselves: "Men are better at looking after external things than themselves - their car doesn't require anything back from them emotionally."
Last February, Fine Gael's Mr Brian Hayes TD attempted to generate a debate about men in Irish society. He believed that men's health and wellbeing well-being needed to be examined, given the state of men's health, the high male suicide rate and the emotional, family and social effects of male unemployment. He proposed the establishment of a commission on the status of men as one possible way to address these problems.
Mr Hayes told The Irish Times he believes believed politicians don't didn't want to speak about men's issues lest they be viewed as anti-woman. He believes believed the Government has had no intention of advancing his proposal and he feels felt Minister of State Ms Mary Wallace's rejection of his proposal in the Dail last February was had been disparaging and had missed the point.
Ms Wallace said she couldn't see a need for the commission. She rejected out of hand the suggestion that "in some way, men stand at a disadvantage in society". Men were "not a beleaguered species", she said. Rather, men continued "to hold a dominant position in society". Not only could she see no need for such a commission but, she concluded, such a forum would be "wasteful of time and resources".
Quite, Ms Wallace. Missed the point. Entirely.
Men's Health, The Common-Sense Approach, a book by Joe Armstrong based on the Man Alive men's health column in The Irish Times, will be published next year by Gill & Macmillan.