Newspaper Article

Commentary: A male perspective on breast cancer

2005

Overview

Though more white women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year, black women are far more likely to die from the disease. Breast cancer, like fibroids and osteoporosis, is yet another example of a disease that is often referred to as simply a woman's disease. I suspect that many men begin to think dismissively about the health issues that disproportionately affect women when they are told as boys that it was mommy's time of the month. Nevertheless, black men must take greater responsibility in increasing their awareness of the diseases that afflict our mothers, sisters, daughters, wives and friends. For example, some studies have shown that 80 percent of all black women suffer from some form of fibroid disease. Could you imagine a disease that afflicted 80 percent of black men that black women would be largely ignorant of? Of course not. But such ignorance is largely the product of a society that continually devalues issues that are critical to black women.

• Publisher: NPR
• Subject: Gordon, Ed / Neal, Mark Anthony