Health & Wellness

Around the world, a global healthcare crisis has been long worsening. Its a well-known fact that sex and gender play a significant part in healthcare access, as well as outcomes. Due to these disparities, for decades there has been increased attention and resources devoted to Special Populations within healthcare: women & girls, people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, and low-income populations. But there is also an ongoing, increasing and predominantly silent crisis in the health and well-being of men. Due to a lack of awareness, poor health education, and culturally induced behavior patterns in their work and personal lives, men’s health and well-being are deteriorating steadily. Just as other sex and gender groups need special healthcare strategies to meet their specific needs, so do men & boys.

While women are know to minimize healthcare struggles – often attributed to women’s perceived “lack of assertiveness” as a gender, or their “unwillingness to be cared for, but only caretake” – we see other groups avoid healthcare entirely. LGBTQ+ patients, in particular those who identify as transgender, are much less likely than women to reach out for care – or even to be offered care when given a checkup or when attended by a medical professional. It’s also a longstanding problem in medical research – too few representatives from too few population groups are represented. “Outcomes” from widely-publicized studies that purport positive results are actually only studies for certain population groups. Why? Again, gender roles play heavily into the medical research field – but also the politicization of gender and sex issues within healthcare plays heavily into the treatment these individuals receive.

While these two populations are known to most people as benefitting from or requiring specific healthcare or treatment protocols, it is interesting to note that men and boys – widely perceived as the most privileged group within sex and gender – actually have a significant lived disparity in healthcare resources and outcomes. In reality, women have been 100% more likely to visit the doctor for annual examinations and preventive services than men (CDC). Yet the same politicized gender expectations and assignments prevent men and boys from receiving the same treatment equity that other groups are provided. The impact of this evident bias is enormous.