Back To the Main SiteBeyond Boxes Series: Sex and Gender Diversity and Mens Health
Peter Hyndal presented at a Men’s Health Conference in Newcastle, last week. A “National Health Gathering” presented by the Australasian Men’s Health Forum. For the conference he wrote a paper named Beyond boxes: Sex and gender diversity and health service provision
We’ll be posting the contents of his presentation over the next few weeks, in tasty bite sized morsels, and the full presentation (with all its references intact) will be available to download at the end of the series.
The first post is First post: Introduction and Terms and todays post, is beyond the jump:
What does any of this have to do with men’s health?
When we use the term men’s health we deploy a range of assumptions about the biology, appearance, gender identity, lifestyle and health risks of the individuals we are talking about. But there are many people who do not meet some or all of these assumptions. Some men’s bodies do not conform to many assumptions of masculinity, some women have physicalities and face health issues that are commonly regarded as male-specific and some people simply can’t or won’t identify as either male or female.
In a national context where the development and assessment of future of health policy seems to be already framed in terms of “men’s health” and “women’s health” it is of significant importance that health services are cognicent of these issues.
The only purpose of specifically targeting mens health is to more correctly target health care services. But by doing this without acknowegdeing the diversity of men and of male identities we run the risk of further marginalising sex and gender diverse people who already suffer significantly worse health outcomes than most. I’m not arguing here against the targeting of mens health services – but rather that, in targeting “men’s health” services we need to challenge our everyday assumptions of sex and gender and be aware of not excluding services to sex and gender diverse individuals.
Why does it matter to men’s health?
Firstly it is worth noting that the prevalence of sex and gender diversity is far higher than usually acknowledged and that these issues therefore affect a far greater number of people than previously thought.
It matters to sex and gender diverse people because despite the fact that health studies erase our existence, and that only a very small number of studies focus on our needs, it is clear that the health risks and needs of the sex and gender iverse community are in urgent need of attention.
It matters to men’s health services more broadly because services that are able to recognise and respond effectively to issues of sex and gender diversity will as a necessary result provide more inclusive health services to all men.
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The A Gender Agenda Blog » Beyond Boxes Series: Medical Professionals and Making Men posted on October 19, 2009:
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The A Gender Agenda Blog » Beyond Boxes: Primary Health Care posted on October 19, 2009:
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