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There is a fundamental biological divide in lifespan.

That is different from living a sedentary lifestyle, which both sexes practice.

And yes, men still have the majority of the jobs that are considered to be extremely dangerous, which does lower the average lifespan. And men do engage in dangerous activities at a greater rate than women do. And when men commit suicide, they succeed at a far, far greater rate than women do.

Men don’t engage healthcare the same way women do, just a fact of life. With health related things, we (men) are inclined to bear things until we can’t.

I work in healthcare, closely with breast health, over my career, and have been intimately involved with setting up systems to acquire and process images, other systems to monitor the status of notifying patients and following up on the exams, and setting up and implementing all the workflows to manage breast imaging in that environment. I am often the only man that enters the breast imaging area on a routine basis to troubleshoot issues, and I see the challenges of that special focus on breast imaging because I get to work closely with the women who are engaged in it. And it is, in its entirety, women. Male residents go through to learn how to read, but I have yet in all my years, seen a male resident who chose Breast Imaging as a career. And I understand that. It is so fraught with female biology and emotion that I presume most men conclude it is best to leave that in the hands of women, who as caregivers, are likely to be far more approachable than a man would be. I tend to agree with that sentiment, as I believe it is the correct one. (NOTE: This preceding paragraph does not generally relate to surgeons who may specialize in performing breast related surgeries. I have known physicians of both sexes who do that, and do it well.)

I have thought for some time that it is possible that the return on all the time and money spent on breast care is less than it should be, but it brings us up to the point of the spear in he debate in healthcare: “How much is a human life worth?” As proof of this suspicion that we aren’t getting the bang for the buck, the movement to change the recommendations on annual mammograms is an indication that I am not alone in this. If my wife were saved by early detection on a mammogram, would I consider that money ill spent?

Probably not. And, if I don’t, how can I criticize someone who does think the resources are well spent if it saves only their own mother, wife, or daughter? Well. That is a different question in any case. It covers all of healthcare, and Breast Imaging is just one aspect of it.

It is infuriating to hear some women say things like “If men had breast cancer, it would be cured immediately. The fact that there is no cure is a result of men running medicine and making choices...”

I’m serious. I have heard that with my own ears more times than I can relate. I find it extraordinarily insulting and demeaning towards men.

But I have heard people say it. If they are called on it, they say “Oh, I was only joking...” but when you hear them say it before they deny it, they are not joking.

It is as if any researcher or physician who had their mother, wife, or daughter die of this terrible cancer was too much of a chauvinist pig, and too self-centered on being male that the lives of people they love dearly could be sacrificed by not being interested enough to put money or effort into finding a cure.

The people who work in that sector of healthcare have my respect, because it is such a difficult thing to read and diagnose breast images, and is so fraught with emotion and often unjustified malpractice suits that I am mystified that any physician would enter into that field of being a breast specialist, but they do for their own reasons. And the ones I have known have done their job well. And I have known many of them.

I am retiring after 38 years in one place (a rarity, I know) I will miss many things about the work I did, and I will miss the good and dedicated people involved in delivering breast care, but I will say this: I don’t think I will miss having issues in breast imaging that need my immediate attention.

There is too much riding on it, sometimes a patient’s health, sometimes the stress level of those tasked with delivering the hands-on nuts and bolts of care and treatment, and sometimes, heartbreakingly, the professional reputation and actual career of a physician who is found culpable in a field where there is ostensible culpability in every single dark recess of the specialty, no matter how good, dedicated, and empathetic that physician may be. (NOTE: This is not to say malpractice does not occur. It does. It is just that virtually anything related to breast imaging in a court of law in front of a jury can be made out to be malpractice. And that knowledge is a special burden to bear by good people who don’t deserve that burden on top of their own honest and good principles.)

I won’t miss that stress and pressure at all, and my heart will go out to those who carry on and are exposed to that stress and pressure each and every day.