Young men are dying because they don't get pregnant; regular health checks around childbirth detect diseases in women early while many men don't check diabetes, BP until 40

A pregnancy brings a woman into a doctor's clinic again and again, for checkups, blood tests and scans. A man walks into no such room until something goes wrong. Public health officials in Tamil Nadu say this one difference explains a large part of why men in the state are dying years before women.

Tamil Nadu registered 401,860 male deaths against 291,347 female deaths in 2025, a gap of 110,513. Nearly 86 percent of that gap, 94,792 deaths, belonged to men aged between 15 and 64, the years most men spend working, raising children and supporting ageing parents, reports TOI.

Why do women get checked more often than men?

Women in Tamil Nadu are screened at least once during pregnancy and again after delivery, a routine that doctors use to catch diabetes, high blood pressure and other risks early. Men rarely walk into a hospital for a checkup until they are well into their forties, said Dr T S Selvavinayagam, a former director of public health who has studied mortality patterns in the state. "We see an epidemic of strokes, heart attacks and renal failure in much younger people, much more in men than in women," he said. He added that timely screening and chronic care treatment can bring life expectancy back to normal.

How many men are dying in their prime working years?
State data shows the gap between male and female deaths grows sharply through the working years. In the 15 to 24 age group, Tamil Nadu recorded 9,167 male deaths against 4,461 female deaths in 2025. Among those aged 25 to 34, the numbers were 17,135 and 6,177. Between 35 and 44, they stood at 31,585 and 11,406. Men accounted for 28,474 more deaths than women between ages 45 and 54, and 30,475 more between 55 and 64.

What is pushing up deaths among younger and middle aged men?
Road crashes and suicides together claim close to 100 lives a day in Tamil Nadu, and most of the victims are men, officials say. Dr T Sundararaman, former executive director of the National Health Systems Resource Centre, said road safety in the state remains extremely weak. "Men have to travel more, even an ordinary worker needs a motorcycle to get to work," he said. In the middle years, cardiovascular disease, stroke, diabetes, kidney failure, chronic respiratory illness and tobacco and alcohol related disease take over as the leading causes of death.

Why do men avoid visiting hospitals till it is too late?
Officials say the cost of a lost working day, not fear of hospitals, keeps many men away. "Men don't visit PHCs fearing loss of daily wages," said director of public health Dr A Somasundaram. To fix this, the state has introduced evening clinics aimed at working men who cannot take time off during the day. "The evening clinics help us diagnose, treat and manage blood sugar and pressure in men," he said.

How does Tamil Nadu's death pattern compare with other places?
State officials have compared Tamil Nadu's numbers with Sweden, where 46,000 male deaths and 46,200 female deaths were recorded in 2025, an almost equal split. Health secretary Darez Ahamed said the comparison is not about men escaping mortality risk altogether but about when death occurs. "Only about 10 percent of deaths in Sweden occur before age 65, compared with 42 percent in Tamil Nadu," he said.

Can better data help fix the problem?
Only 41 percent of the 693,207 deaths registered in Tamil Nadu in 2025 were medically certified, limiting how well causes of death can be tracked. Certification stood at 42 percent for male deaths and 38 percent for female deaths. State nosologist Dr Abishek Stanislaus said at least six out of ten deaths in the state happen outside hospitals, where certification is weakest. "A cause wise review of deaths is essential to understand the reasons for this gap and design targeted interventions," he said, adding that the state is working on verbal autopsy guidelines for deaths that happen outside hospitals.

Inputs from TOI