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Life expectancy for men in US falls to 73 – six years less than women, study

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Re: Life expectancy for men in US falls to 73 – six years less than women, study

#42

Testosterone causes risky behavior, statistically speaking. It’s not dead men, it’s the car crashes that make insuring 18 year old males so expensive…in but one example…

Testosterone itself shortens life. It's why bodybuilders die younger than any other athlete.

Steroids cause premature death, not testosterone.

Re: Life expectancy for men in US falls to 73 – six years less than women, study

#43
post #18

At age 54, I'm now in the final quarter of my life. That assumption inspires me. It discourages procrastination, and encourages me to let go of plans that probably won't happen, since I'm almost out of time. “To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan and not quite enough time.” ― Leonard Bernstein

The life expectancy distribution is not flat: it varies considerably by income, location, and whether you do drugs. It's also a mean, not a median, skewed by early deaths from suicide, drugs, etc. The point being: if you're already 54, earning a median HN salary and not doing drugs, you'll probably live to a lot longer than 73.

Re: Life expectancy for men in US falls to 73 – six years less than women, study

#44

What precisely is causing Americans to die so much earlier than Europeans? I know obesity, healthcare access and gun violence play a factor, but is there anything else?

https://www.stlouisfed.org/on-the-economy/2022/january/evolu...

Re: Life expectancy for men in US falls to 73 – six years less than women, study

#45
post #18

At age 54, I'm now in the final quarter of my life. That assumption inspires me. It discourages procrastination, and encourages me to let go of plans that probably won't happen, since I'm almost out of time. “To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan and not quite enough time.” ― Leonard Bernstein

Drugs and obesity skew the numbers, so you're probably more likely in the final 1/3rd.

I like to reassure myself that my first 20-25 years were wasted on things like "learning basic life skills" and "working too many hours at my first jobs", and that everything I really consider "my life" has taken place in the portion since then.

So by the actuarial life tables, he has 24.5 years left, and has had about 30-35 years of self-directed life so far, which gets him up to 40-45% of his life remaining.

Re: Life expectancy for men in US falls to 73 – six years less than women, study

#46

What precisely is causing Americans to die so much earlier than Europeans? I know obesity, healthcare access and gun violence play a factor, but is there anything else?

Fentanyl, a male suicide crisis and a strong cultural taboo around male mental health, bad responses to COVID-19, poor medical system, and social attitudes strongly attack tackling health care issues for men as somehow oppressive to women. (Compare and contrast funding for prostate cancer and breast cancer in the USA).

Re: Life expectancy for men in US falls to 73 – six years less than women, study

#49
> The decline in life expectancy in the U.S. suggests that advancements in medical treatment are no longer sufficient to counter ongoing public health crises, Yan said. “We have a health care system that is very advanced in treating illnesses and advanced disease. But for the most part … it is not very good when it comes to preventative care.”

Medical treatment is hard to even get. It feels so inaccessible at times. I have a order for blood tests right now, idk how much it is going to cost and what my insurance will cover, and there aren't appointments for 2 weeks at least. Im pretty sure most specialist are that hard to see. Psychologists are ime. I think it might actually be impossible to see dermatologist.

Im curious what life expectancy would be calculated as if they removed some of the easily avoidable issues, like assume I don't kill my self, or OD on opioids, live my life at a healthy weight. What is the male life expectancy then?

Re: Life expectancy for men in US falls to 73 – six years less than women, study

#50
post #15

Perhaps to be fair we should let men retire earlier or collect larger social security checks, so the average total paid out would be roughly equal?

[flagged]

You're literally describing how the patriarchy hurts men.

> when all those arguments explain the gender pay gap

Yes. Which is why you focus on the delta. The end goal is for that to be more equal via breaking down the societal structures we've created where men are expected to take on more risk and women are pressured against from taking more dangerous work. You're a raging feminist.

The patriarchy isn't "men." Both men and women contribute to it and are responsible for it. There's "women aren't cut out for..." which is the side everyone knows but it's also "if you can't provide for your family you're a deadbeat." A society that puts almost all the power in the hands of men shoulders all the responsibility on them too and it's literally killing them.

You need to ask why men find themselves doing more dangerous work and taking on more risk? Or differently why don't women feel the need to? Because in our patriarchal society that's where the bar is for men. That's the role men have been placed into whether they want it or not. Here's a quote from The Bell Jar that distills it perfectly -- "what a man wants is is an arrow into the future and what a woman is is the place the arrow shoots off from." [1] Men are expected to be the forerunners striking it out into the unknown and women are expected to provide stability. And the idea is ingrained from birth.

[1] For context Sylvia and the protagonist Esther violently disagree with this.

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