Men Are More Susceptible to Getting Cancer than Women
- Ananya Bhatla
- May 20, 2022
- 2 min read
Cancer is a disease which occurs when experiencing abnormal cell division patterns. When this happens, it continues to spread to other parts of the body which can turn out to become very harmful. Cancer occurs due to gene faults and those are more prone to happen when one gets older or they are exposed to specific things such as cigarettes, sunlight, and smoke. Receiving cancer for a specified reason is also called carcinogens. After understanding and learning how to control such factors, one factor remains of how someone may get cancer: gender.

It is a fact that men are more likely to get cancer in their lifetime than women, and this is due to a plethora of factors when taken into consideration. Looking at statistics from 1995 to 2011, it can be concluded that 17,951 cancers were diagnosed in men and 8,742 were discovered to be found in women. This vast disparity between the two had to be studied in more detail to make any final verdicts. After taking many tests and looking at past trends, it could be safely said that cancers in the esophagus had a 10.5x greater of chance of being found in men than women, along with cancers in the bladder and larynx with a 3.5x higher probability, and finally gastric cardia(stomach cancer) with a 3.3x more prominent chance. However, men did have lower chances of obtaining thyroid and gallbladder cancers. Even though they had less chances in such cases, it is also true that men are more likely to pass away from cancer.
This means that factors other than alcohol, dieting, smoking, and health issues did not seem to take up most of the cancer cases. Although they were prominent, it was not the sole cause of this disparity. Due to the fact that men were 3x more likely to get bladder cancer than women, meant that this difference had to reside in their sex hormones. First, one must consider the fact that cancer is more prone to those who have more cells. This is because if you have more body mass, then you are more likely to have an abnormal cell. So far, we know that men do meet this criteria more than women, which is part of the reason why they have more gene faults. Furthermore, it is vital that one also understands how the sex cells continue to affect one’s chances of getting cancer. For men, testosterone, the male sex hormone, has qualities which in fact nurture some types of cancer. Meanwhile, estrogen, the female sex hormone, includes more protection to actually prevent the growth of some cancers. Such contradicting attributes instigate further research for scientists to gain more knowledge about these differences.
We believe that all should be well aware of diseases like cancer, and should acquaint themselves with factors that may cause such things. Even though diseases as such cannot be controlled the majority of the time, it is always beneficial to educate oneself about what it may include and should choose to understand the nuances of its science.
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