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Women have received considerable
attention over the last 50 years. NO SUCH ATTENTION
has ever been given to men.
The World Health Organistion drew attention to
the “male dilemma” which will affect
developing countries more than developed nations.
By the year 2050, the number of aged men in developing
countries and in the Third World will bankrupt
the governments of these nations if their men
folk become incapacitated or become financially
non-viable when they are reaching their mid-life.
If they do not become sick but are just emotionally,
psychologically and physically under-charged and
not capable of the level of productivity previously
attainable in their 30s and 40s, this will translate
into economic loss for their families, their companies,
their country and the national progress and development
of their nations. We have to take into serious
consideration that in the developing countries
and in the Third World, the men are generally
the main breadwinners in the social structure.
This interest in the aging male lent added fillip
to the new field of men’s health which addresses
specifically the special attributes and behavious
of men as they develop from their youth to adulthood.
It also identifies the peculiar psychosocial behaviour,
physical and other diseases and risk factors that
may be modified by education and the targeting
of health care resources to areas of health screening
and preventive medicine to aid early detection
of disease and treatment. In the medical profession,
specialists and non-specialists are increasingly
asking for a stake in this field as they encounter
more and more patients presenting sexual, fertility
and the psycological and physical complaints.
An appreciation of men’s health requires
a strong background of epidermiology and its tools.
In this regard, man’s role as the aggressor,
the risk-taker and this susceptibility to trauma
and injury is an epidermiologic observation of
great import. Men’s health issues include
psychological and sexual health including Sexual
Medicine, Erectile Dysfunction, and Male Reproduction
and Male Infertility. In this age range, diseases
of the Prostate and Genito-Urinary Organs are
particularly prevalent. Throughout all ages, Sexually
Transmitted Diseases are common amongst males!
The Society for Men's Health (Singapore) has
begun a new age to champion the cause for the
betterment of men’s health; this it will
do by education medical professionals and the
public by lobbying for more attention to be directed
towards men’s health in the political arena,
in the media and especially to healthcare providers
in this country. It will encourage research in
the science of aging and gerontology and what
we popularly refer to today as “Positive
Aging”. This new magazine of the society
bears these educational objectives in mind to
prepare our society’s aging male for the
mid-life – to recognise it as a new beginning.
It is possibly the most important aspect of men’s
health to be addressed, as the old and the elderly,
due to greater longevity, will increasingly populate
the earth. The challenge is to encourage preventive
and other strategies for healthy positive aging,
“prevent the preventable and avoid the inevitable”
– if you will!
PETER H.C.LIM,
PRESIDENT
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