Sometimes nagging is a good thing

Ladies how many of you have had to push your husbands to go visit the doctor? Men, how many of you would do anything else BUT go to the doctor?

One might laugh at the age old difference between men and women – but this can be a serious matter. "Because men put off going to the doctor, they typically are diagnosed with diseases at a later stage when they are more serious and difficult to treat. And that has major implications for a woman's long-term well-being. Seven out of 10 female baby boomers will outlive their husbands and can expect to be widows for 15 to 20 years. More than half of the elderly widows living in poverty today weren't poor before the death of their husbands, according to the U.S. Administration on Aging." (Wall Street Journal, Health Matters).

According to the Wall Street Journal, when men finally do go to the doctor, it's as if they feel they need to hide behind "their wife made them make an appointment."

Why is this? Do men think going to the doctor is not manly? Do they not care about their health? Even if they didn't, they should at least care enough about their families to care for their own health. Perhaps this is the reason why typically it is the woman caring for her husband – and rarely the husband caring for his wife.