Men at all ages are dying earlier than women and the cause of their earlier deaths depends on their ages. Believe it or not, suicide and murder from the time they are born until the time they are adults is one of the most important causes of the death of the young males. By the time they are 40, the chief cause of death of men is coronary artery disease which begins to be apparent in the mid 30’s. The immune system of men is less vigorous than that of women and men suffer seven out of the ten most important infections including tuberculosis and die more of those infections than do women patients.

I think that we socialize men differently. We tell them not to complain, we ask them to do the most dangerous jobs in society, when they play sports they are encourage to minimize their injuries particularly concussion or any sign of cardiovascular instability and every year indeed, we hear of the sudden unexpected deaths of young athletes who die as result of poor medical care and of poor screening before they engage in the sports and for really negligent treatment after they have sustained and injury.

So it’s a combination of biological delicacy if you will or vulnerability that characterize men compared with women and the rather heartless way if you will or thoughtless way we socialize men that I think causes their earlier deaths.