Mens Health

Issues in men's health include diseases or aspects of health care delivery that are either unique to men, or more prevalent in men. For example:

• Seven of 10 Americans who haven't visited a doctor in the last 5 years are men. Men are less likely than women to be screened regularly for high blood pressure, cholesterol, and cancers.
• Over 180,000 men are diagnosed each year with prostate cancer, and 40,000 will die from this most common form of cancer in men.
• The cost of treating prostate cancer, primarily in older men, is a major public expenditure. By the mid 1990s, hospital costs of this disease to Medicare alone were over $1.4 billion.
• One in 5 American men has cardiovascular disease. Of all hospitalizations of men in 1999, at least a fourth of them - over 3.5 million - were related to cardiovascular problems.
• In 1999, more than 700,000 U.S. men lost their lives due to heart disease, cancers, and stroke.
• Of the 40,000 people infected with HIV in the United States yearly, 70 percent are men.