Why are men's lives too short?

You could fill Wembley stadium with the number of men who die prematurely every year. That's the message of the MHF's hard-hitting new Lives Too Short campaign.

Every year, almost 100,000 men are dying needlessly prematurely (before 75) each year compared to about 66,000 women. That's more than the capacity of Wembley, nearly as many men as in the British Army.

These deaths are rarely inevitable. Men are not biologically programmed to keel over at 75. These deaths are preventable. Some of the statistics presented at today's launch in parliament may shock you.

• 22% of men in England and Wales die before the age of 65 (compared to 13% of women)
• 42% die before 75 (compared to 26% of women)
• 76% of people who kill themselves are men
• men are 70% more likely to die from a cancer that affects both men and women.

So, why hasn’t a pop star organised a high-profile Save The Male concert yet? The answer is that most of us simply don’t realise the scale of the problem or what to do about it.

Action in five areas

The Lives Too Short campaign which was launched at a meeting of the All Party Group on Men's Health shows that men in poorer areas die much younger than wealthier men – in Kensington and Chelsea men’s life expectancy is nearly 11 years longer than in Blackpool. The report also shows that, despite their health problems, men make much less use of primary care services than women – on average, men visit the GP 20% less often.

The Men’s Health Forum is now calling for action in five keys areas to:

• Tackle men’s mental health problems
• Get more men physically active
• Address men’s high cancer rates
• Improve men’s use of primary health services
• Involve more workplaces in men’s health and wellbeing.

Health organisations and those working with men are called on to sign the Lives Too Short Pledge on the MHF website.

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