The average life expectancy for white men is 71 years, that of white women is 78 years. Over the last thirty years, the ratio of male mortality over female mortality has increased in every age category. Men's health is also a concern for employers who lose productive employees as well as pay the costs of medical care and a concern for government and society which absorb the enormous costs of premature death and disability, including the costs of caring for dependents left behind. The relative lag in men's health is due to a number of causes. One primary cause is the cultural message that men should not react to pain in their bodies or their souls.
Heart disease remains the leading cause of death for men.
One in every five men can expect to suffer a heart attack before the age of 65. Between the ages of 25 and 75, men's death rate from heart disease is two to three times greater than that experienced by women in the same age group. One in five men is expected to develop prostate cancer at some point in his life. While female specific cancers also are taking a tragic toll among women, men's mortality from cancer is great than that of women and by the age of seventy-five, men are dying from cancer at twice the rate of women. Black men are especially at risk.