Policy choices and education improvements for men's health issues

The sexual health of adolescent boys is considered to be related to eliminating outdated or misunderstandings about sex and eliminating some bad habits that may have been picked up accidentally. Sexual health problems in married life are considered to be related to establishing a scientific model of sexual behavior within marriage and improving the quality of sexual life. This involves both physiological and psychological issues. The sexual health problems of middle-aged and elderly men are generally related to the proper maintenance of sexual ability.

This shift in meaning raises a series of questions regarding the identification and understanding of the physiological, psychological, and socio-cultural characteristics of male sexual health issues. Currently, there is no systematic measurement indicator system in China. This is a serious deficiency. Addressing male health issues, whether from a medical perspective, an educational perspective, a perspective of guiding industrial policies, or a perspective of promoting a healthy lifestyle, all face obstacles. This is precisely the area where public policy needs to be extended.

III. Approaches to Selecting Relevant Policies: Filling Gaps

Promoting and safeguarding progress in men's health through public policy is both urgent and often overlooked. Men's health is not, and cannot be reduced to, a purely individual issue. Therefore, the health problems of this gender group cannot be addressed piecemeal or solely through education or medical means. In such a neglected area as men's sexual health, the starting point and implementation of public policy require innovation.

Public policy only has a basis when gender groups are specifically defined. Such definitions can take many forms. This study identifies the definition as that of a consumer: to maintain their health, men not only need various medical equipment or medicines, but also various services. This is a universal need for this gender group. At the individual level, a man is a consumer who needs to satisfy these needs through the market or other means. Men with sexually transmitted diseases need to seek medical treatment, consume certain medications, and receive various medical services.

Having established the consumer status of men, the implementation of public policies now has a foundation. From this foundation, several key policy points are derived:

1. Regulate market order

It is crucial to provide reasonable guidance for men's consumption needs related to maintaining or restoring their health. This involves not only disseminating basic knowledge but also regulating relevant goods and services. This includes aspects such as the truthfulness of advertising for goods and services, quality commitments, accountability systems for incidents involving goods and services, and the regulation of competition in the market. This requires comprehensive policy guidance through various channels, including national drug administration departments, industry and commerce administration departments, technical quality supervision departments, media, and consumer rights protection organizations. This is very important.

The various irregularities surrounding Viagra in the domestic pharmaceutical market indicate a lack of unified policy coordination in this area, or that some policies have not yet proven effective.

2. Protection of the unique interests of men (relevant medical system reforms)

Here, men are treated as a group requiring special social protection. In areas where men's health needs are addressed, systemic forces are designed or mobilized to protect the interests of this group through policy measures. In this regard, at least institutionally, women's health and related matters are specifically handled by administrative departments, and various arrangements and activities related to women's health exist within non-administrative institutions. In contrast, men's health and related matters lack such institutional and policy guarantees. Compared to the importance of women's health issues, the importance of men's health to families and society is not fully recognized, simply because men's health issues, at the physiological and psychological levels, are not directly linked to the stability and development of families and society.

Policy guarantees for men's health can be reflected in the design of the medical system and in marriage and family policies.

3. Community Policy (Men's Health Maintenance within the Community Service System)

The importance of communities in safeguarding group interests and promoting coexistence is becoming increasingly prominent. Related to men's health is the community service system. Health maintenance within community service systems has developed rapidly in many economically developed cities. However, its shortcomings include: it primarily focuses on health protection for the elderly, lacking specific design for men's health issues, and offering very few specialized services. This means that the potential of community organizations in maintaining men's health has not been fully realized. Because of the lack of such specialized service institutions, many needs for men's health maintenance and rehabilitation remain unmet. This is a vicious cycle that requires specific policy design to break.

4. Educational policies (sex education and ethics, gender role education)

The neglect of men's health is also concentrated in the education field, whether in general education or sex education, especially for adolescent boys. There is a tendency to replace the transmission of concrete physiological and psychological knowledge with abstract moral indoctrination. Guiding gender roles is always a gradual process. However, few educational authorities or other departments consciously integrate male role education into an appropriate and organic whole, resulting in numerous contradictions (between different ideas or behaviors and beliefs). Not only young men, but even adult men often find themselves in various awkward situations related to male roles. Men with physical or psychological problems find it even more difficult to escape these predicaments, causing small problems to escalate into larger ones. Although precise measurements are lacking, it is certain that the men's health problems caused by educational deficiencies should not be underestimated. Improvements in education are indispensable.