Nova Scotia: Women's Health Summit. What about Men?
I recently learned of the Orchid Women’s Health Initiative and their commitment to improving health care for women in Nova Scotia. The Province of NS also just announced that they are taking action on women’s health and are hosting a new Women’s Health Summit this fall, “bringing together community organizations, advocates, patients, healthcare providers and other stakeholders to help shape future priorities. The government is also creating the provincial Women’s Health Clinical Collaborative and a dedicated Women’s Health Program within the Department of Health and Wellness.”
NS Announces Women's Health Summit
In one way, I think this is fantastic news. Women deserve excellence in health care and men have learned and gained so much from the health leadership of women and women’s health initiatives. Movember was sparked by two mates who learned about a fundraiser for breast cancer, and we established Canada’s first Fathers’ Mental Health Clinic that was modeled after mother’s perinatal mental health care services.
Canada's Gender Health Strategies
Nowadays, when I hear of gender specific concerns or initiatives I try to take a moment and look at it from the other perspective. Not to diminish one concern, but to check in with the data and my gender bias, and explore whether or not attention on the other side is also required. Just last week I attended a Men’s Mental Health Summit in Ontario in preparation for the release of Canada’s first strategy on Men’s and Boys’ Health. Canada launched the Women’s Health Strategy back in 1999. I approached this summit first and foremost as a child psychiatrist and from the perspective of boys, children and families. Improving men’s mental health includes addressing child development, parenting, relationships, stigma, suicide and violence to name just a few important areas.
While I don’t believe that advancing health care for one gender is intended to be a zero sum game with a loss for the other, I do recognize that health care resources are limited and that advocacy drives change.
Balsam Fir Men's Health Initiative
With the recent advocacy for women's health, where is the Balsam Fir Men’s Health Initiative in NS?
In 2026, Nova Scotia released its Population Health Report.
Some of the news highlighted the gender differences on self-report measures. Compared to men, fewer women rated their health as very good or excellent (52% compared to 54% men); rated their mental health as very good or excellent (43% compared to 57% men) and that cancer incidence rates have gone up for women and down for men.
Health Troubles for Men in Nova Scotia
In the bigger picture; however, I would argue that the men in Nova Scotia are also in desperate need of a health strategy as well. Men die younger (life expectancy is 78 vs 83 for women), more men die as a result of deaths of despair (suicide, opioid-related death), there are more men than women living and dying with cancer, even though the rate of incidence has changed. See below for more differences.
Health Measure | Men | Women | Male : Female Ratio | Difference |
Life expectancy | 78 years | 83 years | 0.94 : 1 | Men 5 years lower |
Overweight / obese | 64% | 56% | 1.14 : 1 | +8 percentage points |
Hepatitis C | 46 per 100,000 | 29 per 100,000 | 1.59 : 1 | +17 percentage points |
Cannabis use | 32% | 25% | 1.28 : 1 | +7 percentage points |
Binge drinking | 32% | 22% | 1.45 : 1 | +10 percentage points |
Suicide mortality | 20 per 100,000 | 7 per 100,000 | 2.86 : 1 | +13 per 100,000 |
Poisoning mortality | 5 per 100,000 | 3 per 100,000 | 1.67 : 1 | +2 per 100,000 |
Opioid-related deaths | 11 per 100,000 | 3 per 100,000 | 3.67 : 1 | +8 per 100,000 |
Nova Scotia will always be considered my home province, and its people, always worth fighting for.
