Differences and historical lag between andrology and andrology

2. Andrology and Gynecology are different.

Has anyone seen the NHK special program "Men and Women ~ The Latest Scientific Interpretation of Men and Women" that aired this spring (2009)? It was a very popular topic, and many people probably know about it.

The program introduced the United States, a country known for gender equality, which has begun a new system of gender segregation. Because gender differences become particularly apparent during adolescence, it's understood that the number of schools offering separate classes for boys and girls in elementary and secondary compulsory education is increasing. The aim is to provide sex education tailored to each gender.

The program also introduced a new development in the medical field, namely, the importance of emphasizing the gender differences in diseases.

Brain function also differs between men and women.

In the United States, a country historically known for denying female uniqueness, this experiment began because they understood that the brains of men and women differ. Even when performing the same task, men and women use their brains differently, specifically in the ways and parts they use. For example, men use spatial awareness to read maps, while women rely on memory or markings. These differences in the brain suggest that men and women excel at different things, a novel idea aimed at actively utilizing this understanding.

The reason for the differences between male and female brains is "for the common survival and to avoid extinction." Human ancestors struggled with hunger for a very long time. By sharing tasks, the likelihood of securing a variety of foods increased, thus increasing the chances of leaving offspring.

Considering this, it is not surprising that changes in a person's body and health as they age also differ between men and women.

3. Male medicine, which lags behind women's medicine.

In medical terms, "human" refers to male.

Rather than being a male-centric society, it's mainly because women experience menstruation, which often leads to drastic hormonal fluctuations, unstable health, and difficulty in obtaining medical data. Therefore, men, with their smaller hormonal changes, have become the benchmark for humanity.

Diseases unrelated to reproductive function, such as the common cold, asthma, hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, and liver disease, are studied primarily with male subjects in their pathogenesis, treatment, and prevention. Only prescription drugs take into account physical differences, with women accounting for 70% of the male population.

Meanwhile, in the medically advanced United States, most new drug development and clinical trials are conducted in military hospitals where there are no legal concerns. This is because the medical data is based on the physical characteristics of military personnel, a group that possesses unique physical attributes even among men.

At the time, because the results were obtained using male subjects, the possibility that they might not be suitable for women was not considered. Its drawbacks could include problems such as Salidame being safe for men, but causing birth defects like babies born without limbs after being taken by pregnant women.

Therefore, attention began to be paid to the different gender differences in healthcare, and calls for its necessity began in the mid-1990s.

Research on male hormones has only recently begun.

Historically, research into hormones that govern male-female differences was initially conducted by men, driven by their strong desire to be "stronger." However, with the rise of feminism in the 1960s, research into symptoms and diseases specific to women finally gained attention, leading to advancements in women's medicine. Simultaneously, not only gender-specific medicine but also "women's studies," which comprehensively considers "what is female sexuality," began research in many universities in 1970.

On the other hand, men continue to play the role of representing humanity.

Compared to "women's studies," "men's studies," a discipline that considers the social perspective of men alone, is almost non-existent worldwide.

As a field of andrology, the WHO began taking action in 1997. In February 2000, the first international conference on "male menopause" was held in Geneva, Switzerland, with 800 researchers from 50 countries participating. Male-centered gender-differentiated medicine has thus gained global attention.

Influenced by this trend, Japan established the "Japan Aging Letter Research Association" in 2001 to study the physical and mental changes that occur in men as they age. In 2006, it was upgraded to the Japan Men's Health Medical Association.

After explaining for so long, you should understand that the concept of "men's health" is still relatively new in the world.