Inspired by a billboard I saw while driving. . .

I took Kevin to the doctor today for his one year checkup (and the required shots). On the way back, I saw a billboard with the following message:

Babies were born to breastfeed.
www.4woman.gov

Nice message, I thought.

When I got home, I checked out the website, out of random curiosity. It's the address for The National Women's Health Information Center. Again, random curiosity led me to try www.4man.gov.

Nope. The site doesn't exist. You can find information for men's health off the women's health homepage. As far as I can tell, there is no equivalent office for men.
Representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA) and Senator Michael Crapo (R-ID) have introduced the Men's Health Act of 2005. This act would create an office to mirror the National Women's Health Information Center.

The WHIC has done some great work in improving the general health of women in America. Given that men die younger in each of the top 10 causes of death*, maybe we ought to do something about men's health too.

* I suspect that one of my 2-3 readers per day will point out that more women than men die of heart attacks. A search turns up this table, which, considering that any google search for "heart disease men women" turns up pages about how women are more at risk, is no mean accomplishment. Again, it is true that more women (total) die of heart attacks than men - the problem is that more men per capita die in each age category. Since more women live to adulthood and byond, it should not be surprising that more women will eventually die of heart disease.