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Among young people, lupus affects females especially heavily. In the 50s and beyond, women still account for most cases, but men start to catch up. Older patients tend to be more concerned that they’ve developed a disease that pops up more in women. A 19 year-old man with lupus may not care, per se, but the 55 year-old men may be a bit more traditional. Sometimes  there’s a bit of reticence or embarrassment on their part over the diagnosis.

Men tend to have more serious cases of the disease than women, and it’s often especially severe in young men. However, men typically respond as well to treatments – which are mostly the same for men and women — and the risk of death from the disease is similar.

Osteoporosis: One Man Per Four Women

Look at any advertisement for calcium supplements or osteoporosis treatment, and it’s obvious who’s being targeted–namely, not men. While it’s true that women are more prone to weakened bones, the National Osteoporosis Foundation estimates that two million men have it currently, while twelve million more are at risk. Women have smaller frames, which give them less to work with as calcium depletion rises with age. But while women are often tested for bone density around menopause because their hormonal changes make bones more fragile, men aren’t until something major happens, like a fracture.

Men die more from hip fractures than women (31 percent, compared with 17 percent), partly because their fractures tend to happen later in life, and partly because the disease progresses unchecked so for long, severely damaging their frames. According to the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, 6 percent of men will have hip fractures by age fifty. Age isn’t the only trigger, though. Lifestyle habits like smoking, drinking too much alcohol, and getting little to no exercise, as well as certain medications (for example, those that contain steroids, like asthma medication), ethnicity, and family history, are all possible risk factors.

Surprise: Men Get These Diseases, Too  was originally published on blackdoctor.org

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