MEN'S HEALTH AMERICA SPECIAL REPORT
Up is down. Black is white. And even is odd. At least that seems to
be the thinking these days at the National Institutes of Health, which
has concocted a gender health plan that ignores the basic public health
facts.
This is what's happened...
Heart disease is the number one killer of men. One-third of men will eventually die of this dread disease, many in their 40s and 50s while still in the prime of their career. Many of these men are daddies and husbands who provide the main source of income for their families.
And heart disease disproportionately afflicts men. According to the latest government report, the heart disease death rate among men in 1999 was 328/100,000; and only 221/100,000 in women -- that's a 50% disparity. The recent Special Report, "Heart Disease: Why are Men Still at Higher Risk of Death?"
Recently the NIH has launched a series of sex-specific programs that, unbelievably, ignore men. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, which oversees the NIH's heart disease effort, has established a number of health initiatives directed at women:
1. NHLBI offers 8 sex-specific publications for women, and none for men (www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/pubs/pub_gen.htm).
2. The NHLBI Strategic Plan to Address Health Disparities gives ample attention to women's health, but completely ignores men's health (www.nhlbi.nih.gov/resources/docs/plandisp.htm).
3. In 1998, male enrollments in NHLBI-sponsored research studies fell to an all-time low of 32%, compared to 68% female participation. (www.nhlbi.nih.gov/resources/docs/plandisp.htm).
Last week the NHLBI unveiled yet another women's health program that further defies reason or logic. According to the NHLBI Director, Dr. Claude L'Enfant (lenfantc@nhlbi.nih.gov), the Women's Heart Health Awareness Campaign will help "make women aware of the risk factors for heart disease and to motivate them -- with the help of their health care professionals -- to take an active role in their heart health,"
But Dr. L'Enfant has yet to announce any initiatives designed to help men. In essence, the NHLBI has indicated that men's hearts count for less.
How Did this Mindset Take Hold at the NIH?
The NIH was once the most respected medical research institution in the world. So how did this "You can never do enough for women's health" mindset take hold at NHLBI?
Thirty years ago, women's health advocates began to make the claim that women had been "routinely excluded" from medical research. The actual facts paint a very different picture:
1. As early as 1979, women were included in 96% of all clinical trials sponsored by the NIH.
2. Overall, the numbers of women enrolled in these trials equalled or exceeded the numbers of men, according to a 2000 analysis by Curtis Meinert that was published in Controlled Clinical Trials.
3. Breast cancer research has historically received more NIH funding than prostate research, on a scale of 4:1.
But certain feminists repeated the exclusion claim enough times, that people came to believe the myth. Passed on by the media and politicians courting the women's vote, the myth spread like a cancer, and soon became accepted as popular truth.
The myth of female exclusion from medical research has made women angry, and caused chivalrous men to feel guilty. Anger and guilt can be powerful emotions. As a result, feminist hysteria carries sway over objective scientific facts.
As a result, men's health does not simply rank lower on the totem pole at the National Institutes of Health. The sad truth is, men's health is a non-issue.
Orwell was right: Some victims are more equal than others.
Carey Roberts
