PRESS RELEASE
Contact:  G. Lawrence DeMarco, LLM
Email: ldemarco@menandboys.net
Phone: +1-215-901-1930 

Men’s Health Gains Powerful Momentum Around the World

October 14, 2025 — Seven years ago, the World Health Organization launched the global movement to bring gender equality into the health policy sphere. In 2018, the European Office of the WHO published its historic “Strategy on the Health and Well-Being of Men in the WHO European Region”(1).

Then the WHO celebrated International Men’s Day on November 19 with a series of Facebook announcements (2).

This past July, the momentum continued to grow as the Bulletin of the World Health Organization published Morna Cornell’s pivotal article, “Men’s Health Policies: Long Overdue.” Dr. Cornell revealed, “Globally, men have shorter life expectancy and higher mortality than women,” but surprisingly, “Men are still not identified as a vulnerable group in most national health policies” (3).

Fortunately, the laudable efforts of the WHO are beginning to resonate at the country level, as national strategies for men’s health have been implemented in Brazil, Iran, Malaysia, and Quebec (4).  And governmental authorities in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, and the United States have issued supportive statements, as well (5).

Recently, in the United States, 60 leading organizations sent a letter calling on the Department of Health and Human Services to establish an office of men’s health and to allocate sufficient funds that are commensurate with the funding of the seven offices of women’s health. The 60 organizations represent a broad range of interests, including women’s issues, families, domestic violence, and more, and vary in terms of their focus on policy, research, or advocacy. (6)

November is Men’s Equality Month (MEM). Men’s Equality Month serves as an opportunity to highlight the pressing needs of men in terms of their shorter lifespan, suicide risk, and other areas. Events are planned around the world for Men’s Equality Month. (7)

The International Council for Men and Boys (ICMB) encourages lawmakers to take advantage of Men’s Equality Month as an opportunity to announce new initiatives in men’s health in their state or district. Examples include:

  1. Announce a new men’s health strategy
  2. Establish an office of men’s health
  3. Launch a public education program on men’s health

Please let ICMB know of your plans at info@menandboys.net  so we can highlight the event on our website, and we call on the media to publicize these events as well.  Working together, we will succeed in fulfilling the WHO pledge of “Health For All.”

The International Council for Men and Boys is a non-governmental organization that is working to celebrate the contributions of men to society and to end the 12 sex disparities that affect men and boys around the world. Achieving #GenderEqualityForMen will also benefit women.
https://www.menandboys.net/

Links:

  1. https://www.who.int/europe/publications/i/item/WHO-EURO-2018-4209-43968-61973
  2. https://www.saveservices.org/2025/06/world-health-organization-highlights-international-mens-day/
  3. https://iris.who.int/server/api/core/bitstreams/1ddea43b-a9b3-4ddd-b76d-0b4876375589/content
  4. https://gamh.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Delivering-Mens-Health-report.pdf
  5. https://www.menandboys.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Recent-Statements-by-Political-Leaders-and-Govt-Authorities.pdf
  6. https://www.saveservices.org/2025/07/60-organizations-call-on-dhhs-to-promptly-establish-office-of-mens-health/
  7. https://www.menandboys.net/mem/