Norway became the latest country to have its own Men's Health Forum when the Men's Health Forum Norway (MHFN) was launched in Oslo in June by a small group of Norwegian researchers from different backgrounds, health civil servants and health practitioners.
The objective of the MHFN is to focus on men’s health and illness from a gender perspective.
The need for a forum in Norway emerged as men’s life expectancy is unnecessarily low in Norway and the Nordic countries since men die of causes that could be prevented. Men also have a high morbidity in certain diseases that affect both sexes. Men have a particularly high suicide rate, and paradoxically men’s psychiatric problems remain untreated.
The founders of the MHFN explained that the health care systems in Norway have been slow to respond to men’s specific health and illness needs, and underlined that the health care systems are devoid of gender perspective on men’s health problems
The aim of the network is to generate a broad understanding of the similarities and differences in men's health and illness and in men's relationship with the healthcare system. The network will initiate a debate and research on men's health and illness, among practitioners, academics, politicians and planners. It will aim to develop men’s health studies at a Norwegian level to ensure that Norway will become part of the international debate and research in this field. The argument is that a gender perspective on health is important and will generate new information and new knowledge.
Current MHFN reseach activities include work on sportsmen, body image and emotions, on men with heart diseases and men with and weight issues, on divorced men and their health, and men and diet. The Norwegian Forum is also working on a short fiction film project with the working title 'Men’s Body Image & Crises'.
The MHFN cooperates with the Danish network, and together we are planning a conference on Men´s Health in Oslo in February 2006. MHFN are also engaged in a 2006 international conference on health and gender due to take place at the University of Stavanger, Norway.
Close partners of the MHFN include: the Nordic Institute for Women´s Studies and Gender Research, the Norwegian Information and Documentation Centre for Women´s Studies and Gender Research, The University of Oslo, Reform – resource center for men and The Danish network on Men´s Health
