It’s well known that women on average live longer than men. The current life expectancy for women in the U.S. is 81, for men it is 76. Since these are averages of the whole population, that is a huge difference. Science has identified some commonly accepted factors. Testosterone, which men have more of, seems to reduce the effectiveness of the immune system as men age. Men also have on average higher blood pressure than women, although this difference is less after age 60. Men may be less likely to comply with medical advice—going to regular physical checkups and taking recommended medications. And then there are lifestyle factors related to anxiety and depression. Older men commit suicide 60% more than women—that certainly brings the average life expectancy down. And drug abuse—opoids and methamphetamines in addition to alcohol—is more prevalent among men.
In other words, the causes are multiple and complex. A recent scientific study looked at this issue by examining lifespans in non-human mammals—such as lions—and discovered that females live longer than males in those populations too. One obvious explanation is that males compete and fight for mating rights, and besides being injured or dying in these fights, their metabolism is adapted for aggression and competition. Human men don’t (usually) explicitly fight for access to women, but the metabolic adaptation we find in non-human mammals probably applies to male humans as well. The propensity for aggression and competition is stronger in men than women—we don’t need scientific studies to tell us that men’s health suffers as a consequence.
So is there something that men should do about this, or are we fated to fight harder and die younger as a consequence of our testosterone-fueled gender? It would be easy to say that men should go to their medical checkups, take their meds, do what their doctors say, and avoid harmful hard drugs—even cigarettes and alcohol. It is much harder to change core behaviors, especially in a society where economic and relational stresses are epidemic. Male anger and depression are a direct consequence of these pressures, and changing behaviors, especially around addictive substances, is extremely difoficult.
We should also be honest that for many men staying healthy and living long are not necessarily compelling life objectives. It takes a healthy dose of self-respect and long-term perspective for longevity to be a front-burner motivation. Try telling a heavy smoker or heavy drinker that those habits might take ten years off their life. I have tried, and typically I get some response like, “Well, everyone’s going to die of something,” “Nobody can tell me what to do,” and “It’s my life, I’ll do what I want.”
Not surprisingly, these responses are similar to ones you read about among anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers. “No-one can tell me what to do” seems to be some distorted version of the John Wayne-like rugged individualism that is championed as a core American virtue. But it isn’t really, it’s a form of rugged ignorance. Just yesterday I read of yet another anti-vaxxer–a well-regarded attorney in an affluent county who regularly dissed vaccine mandates on television—who died of complications from Covid. We are seeing in this pandemic age that beliefs which define core identity—such as refusing vaccination—can be more powerful than survival itself. That is a fact that at first I found astonishing, until I reflected on history, ancient and modern, and realized that dying for one’s beliefs—however wrong-headed or mistaken—is not a bug in the programming of the human psyche, it is a feature.
So there we are. I don’t know how many men are aware that they are, on average, fated to die five years younger than women, or even if they were, if that would change any of their self-destructive behaviors. In many cases it would not. I continue to hope, however naively, that in the longer run knowledge will triumph over ignorance, but privately I am not optimistic. I remember a factoid from the 1970s mass carnage in Cambodia, where a person could be killed for wearing glasses or owning a metal cooking pot—possessions that signified education and urban living. I hope it will not come to that in the U.S., but at this point I am not ready to rule anything out. I watch and wait, hoping for the best and fearing the worst.
Lew, Excellent article. I was just reading about the animal study you mentioned. As you know I’ve been helping heal men and their families for more than fifty years. Most recently I’ve created my Moonshot Mission for Mankind in Support of Humanity. You can learn more about it here. https://menalive.com/the-man-kind-challenge/
Hope this resonates with you.
Another factor may be that little boys and girls are given very different expectations. Boys are often pressured, however subtly, to excel and compete. They are also expected to not display their feelings, to supress them, and finally, to deny them. Girls are allowed to have their feelings, and to talk about them. They also are allowed to have close friendships with other girls. They are probably not pressured as much to excel in school. They probably have more healthy emotional lives. I expect that boys and men have to live with more emotional stress which, over time, takes a large toll on their physical and mental health.
You seem pretty pessimistic about the potential for change. However there may be reason for hope in the younger generation of men. I do see more younger men willing to participate in child care for example and hence taking on more “female” associated behaviors. Culture change is slow and piecemeal and yet it does happen. I think we need to take the long view.