Talking About Men's Health™

At some point not long after the baby is born, just about every new father gets hit with a sharp jolt of reality: he’s a father–with new responsibilities, new pressures, new expectations to live up to. For some of us, this seemingly basic little epiphany comes early, before we leave the hospital. But for others, reality may not hit for a few days. Sooner or later, though, we all come to realize that our lives have changed forever. Sometimes the changes are subtle, sometimes not so subtle. But they’re almost always surprising.

Continue Reading

With dozens of activities happening around the country to mark Men’s Health Month, this seems like the perfect time to announce the launch of the new California Men’s Health Network.  This chapter of the national MHN will allow us to promote men’s health through both statewide and local initiatives in the Golden State.  These include:
Continue Reading

CHECK THIS POST OUT ON SCRIBD

The following post is paraphrased from one of my recent guest lectures. It sparked enormous debate and I was very pleased to see college students taking the initiative to discuss their health among peers. Although the topic was testicular cancer and testicular self-examination, I told the females in the class to parallel the discussion to breast cancer and breast self-examination.

…and so the lecture/discussion began:

Continue Reading

Do women make better doctors?  A recent editorial by Pauline Chen, M.D. in the New York Times posed this thought-provoking question, which led me to recall my previous experiences with physicians of both genders.  It is an interesting concept when you think about it.  So many of the same qualities that mothers generally have – caring, compassion and a nurturing spirit – were possessed by many of the women doctors that I have interacted with.  I won’t go so far as to say that I prefer a female physician over a male, but just based on past experiences, I felt more comfortable when cared for by a female physician.  And while research studies do support the theory that female doctors are considered “better” in the patient’s perspective, the literature also indicates that the patient’s gender also plays an important role.  Dr. Chen indicates that female patients had particular expectations depending on their physician’s gender.  For example, when seen by female physicians, they reported satisfaction when physicians expressed great concern and empathy during the visit.  In contrast, female patients were more satisfied with male physicians who did not overtly show concern or empathy.  Male patients, on the other hand reported satisfaction, regardless of the physician’s gender.  Moreover, female patients were more likely to engage in discussions with their physician regarding their illness compared to their male counterparts.
Continue Reading

I was recently given the incredible honor to represent my peers as the speaker for the Masters and MPH programs at the 2010 graduate school commencement ceremonies. Our esteemed editor, Mr. Sonny Patel, felt that my speech, while not specifically male-centered, would serve quite well for this month’s blog entry. Continue Reading

For the last 15 years, I have devoted myself to providing men the tools, support, and knowledge to help them become the fathers they want to be——and their families need them to be. As a former Marine, I understand completely the barriers and issues that come up for men when deployment is over and it’s time to return to the wife and kids.  In honor of Armed Forces Day (May 15, 2010), I wanted to reiterate an answer that most military families find useful to the question of “how easy is it to come back home from a long deployment?”

Continue Reading