Live longer and healthier: Raising awareness about men’s health issues
For more than a century, men’s life expectancy has lagged women’s1. Interestingly, the gap is true across different species.2 While recent research attributes the evolutionary process as a key contributor to lifespan gaps, men don’t have to take the findings sitting down.
By amping up your awareness and prioritizing annual preventive visits with your primary care provider (PCP) – an action that applies to men and women alike – men can own and take control of their health.
Awareness
While men and women experience different health conditions purely based on anatomy, they also experience plenty of the same conditions…but they suffer them differently. Confusing? Let’s untangle it.
Health conditions specific to men
Prostate cancer
One in 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime3. However, the risk varies based on factors such as age and race/ethnicity. To stay on top of the risk, consider a baseline PSA (prostate specific antigen) blood test. The screening looks for possible signs of cancer; however, it doesn’t tell you if you have cancer. The recommended age to start screening depends on your risk4:
- Age 50 for men at average risk and expected to live at least 10 more years
- Age 45 for men at high risk, including African Americans and men with a first-degree relative with prostate cancer
- Age 40 for men at higher risk who have more than one first-degree relative with prostate cancer
BPH and prostatitis
Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and prostatitis cause the prostate to swell and make urination painful and difficult. BPH – sometimes called prostate enlargement – is common among aging men. Half of men between the ages of 51 and 60 and about 80% of men over 70 will develop it5. Prostatitis is a frequently painful condition that involves inflammation of the prostate. It is the most common urinary tract issue for men under age 50 and can be caused by an infection6.
Testicular cancer
Testicular cancer is the most common cancer in men ages 20-35, but it can occur at any age. Encouragingly, the cure rate is greater than 95% for all men with the disease7. It’s usually detected due to symptoms – such as a lump, swelling, or pain in the testicle – or through testing for another condition. The exact cause is not known, though it is linked to several other conditions8.
Health conditions men experience differently than women
Diabetes
Both men and women can develop Type 2 diabetes, and while obesity is often a top risk factor, men can develop diabetes at lower weights than women. That’s because men tend to store much of their fat in the belly while the rest of the body may remain slender. That belly fat, called visceral fat, releases inflammatory chemicals and free fatty acids that cause insulin resistance and leads to diabetes9.
Heart disease
As a leading cause of death for men in the United States, heart disease is often “silent” and not diagnosed until there’s an event like heart attack, an arrhythmia, or heart failure. Heart disease develops an average of 10 years earlier in men and has an early warning sign – erectile dysfunction – that men should not ignore10. Other risk factors men should pay attention to include low testosterone and high stress.
Colorectal cancer
Since the mid-1980s, colorectal cancer (CRC) diagnoses have dropped thanks to more people getting screened and making lifestyle-related changees11. However, men have a higher rate of developing CRC compared to women. While there are some risk factors you cannot change, like your age or racial/ethnic background, there are others attributed to more than half of CRCs that are easily modified, such as smoking, unhealthy diet, high alcohol consumption, physical inactivity, and excess body weight12.
Osteoporosis
Yes, osteoporosis traditionally has been thought of as a women’s disease, but it’s now also recognized as a male health issue as well. How’s it different? Osteoporosis starts later for men because bone loss is slower in men. This generally has resulted in fewer bone fractures in men, but the numbers have been increasing in recent years13. Read our article on men’s skeletal health to find out what you can start doing to delay bone loss.
Get support managing men’s health issues with Blue KC’s Care Management app
Manage your health and take care of ongoing health conditions with the Blue KC Care Management app. Use it to:
- Chat with Blue KC’s Care Management team in between doctor’s visits to get questions answered and help coordinate care.
- Find resources to help you manage health conditions, lose weight, quit smoking, and manage pain.
- Set appointment and medication reminders.
- Receive daily tasks and track progress.
- Access clinically approved articles and videos personalized to you.
- View your personal health information and care program details.
Download the Blue KC Care Management App
Visit the App Store or Google Play and search Blue KC Care Management App. When prompted, use access code kcbluewelcome.
1Life expectancy at birth, age 65, and age 75, 1900-2019, CDC
2 Why women live longer than men, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
3Key statistics for prostate cancer, American Cancer Society
4ACA recommendations for prostate cancer early detection
5Enlarged prostate, Yale Medicine
6Prostatitis: Inflammation of the prostate, National Institutes of Health
7Testicular cancer statistics, John Hopkins Medicine
8Testicular cancer, American Cancer Society
9Visceral adipose tissue: The hidden culprit for Type 2 diabetes, National Institutes of Health
10 Special heart risks for men, Johns Hopkins Medicine
11Key statistics for colorectal cancer, American Cancer Society
12Colorectal cancer facts & figures 2023-2025, American Cancer Society
13 Osteoporosis in men, National Institutes of Health
