Dear Healthy Men: I love my family, but I’m very frustrated about having to manage almost everyone’s health. While my daughter and I schedule our own doctor visits and mammograms, my husband and two teenage sons never do. In fact, I just spent half the morning making appointments (physicals for my sons, and a physical, colonoscopy, ECG [electrocardiogram] and dermatology checkup for my husband). I’m doing all this because I love them, but honestly, I resent having to take care of things my husband and sons should be doing for themselves. Am I alone in this?
You’re definitely not alone; I often hear from women who, like you, have discovered that men’s health is a women’s issue and resent that the responsibility for keeping the males in their life (fathers, sons, husbands, brothers, boyfriends) healthy has fallen to them.