Movember 2023: Men's Trends with Suicide by Age
A crisis among old men
Yes, I know this has been heavy, but let me dump this down so you can see what I have seen, and why I hope we can turn this around.
I promise my next post will be happy!
But first, the fundraiser!
2023 Movember Fundraiser
Here are the places you can donate to the Movember Foundation, which supports men’s health, specifically focusing on prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and men’s mental health:
Mary Pat Campbell’s MoSpace – a place to donate at Movember itself
My Movember Facebook fundraiser – my officially linked fundraiser, if this works better for you
And here’s a QR code if that works better for you:
And now, the heavy stuff.
The trend in suicide death rates for men by age, 1968-2022
Let’s just look at the big picture.
First, yes, the highest suicide death rates for men are at the oldest ages. The shape is different for women, but as we can see from my prior post, the death rates for women are much lower and that’s not my focus this month, so let us move on.
We can see that there has been quite the up and down movement for older men, in terms of suicide rates. And yes, it got really bad, really fast, during the pandemic for old men.
I can think of reasons why.
Back in July 2017, even before Stuart was diagnosed with prostate cancer and before I started fundraising for the Movember Foundation, I wrote about the issue of suicide and old men.
SUICIDES AMONG ELDERLY MEN IS A SERIOUS PROBLEM
The highest suicide rates are for elderly men. It has been this way for a long time. But that is ignored – and that is what got me angry above.
It was glossed over in the graphs at the top by combining men with women, as well as grouping the 65-74 people with the 75+ crowd… or just not including the 75+ grouping at all.
….
I mentioned Broken Heart Syndrome earlier this year, when people are more likely to die when a spouse dies. I didn’t mention that often this is a one-way thing — men are much much more likely to die when a spouse dies, than vice versa. Some of this may be from just a simple disparity in male v. female mortality rates, but I think loneliness is a huge part.
But again, I am not thinking so much as to why the suicide rate keeps increasing. It does increase.
What gets me angry is not that the rate increases, but that it doesn’t seem people much care. “They’re gonna die anyway”. Well, we’re all going to die anyway. “They don’t have much to live for” And why is that, exactly? Maybe they could be enjoying life, if people simply helped them. You know, call once in a while. At least.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the suicide rate for the elderly gets a lot worse. There are a lot of childless Boomers, or Boomers with only one kid. And some had those kids rather old, and their own kids don’t have kids til rather old. Not many grandkids to visit.
But I believe one of the biggest reasons people don’t take senior suicide all that seriously is because it’s not even close to a top cause of death for the oldest people. Look at that top-ten table — it doesn’t even rank for the 65+ crowd. Heck, septicemia kills more old folks than suicide.
But the rate for suicide for old men is much, much higher than suicide for teenagers of any sex.
But nobody much cares.
Because who cares about old men, am I right?
Well, I do.
That said, it’s not just a matter of old men where there’s a problem.
Younger men trend
Let’s remove the older age groups.
Uh, wow.
I cannot explain this one to you.
Once upon a time, younger men had lower suicide rates than older men (in terms of age 55-64 years old).
But there seems to have been a convergence of their rates — maybe because they’ve all been put into the blender of “you’re in the workforce… or you’re not, thus you have value… or you don’t”?
I don’t know. That’s a first guess.
Snapshots by year
By pulling specific years for each of these age groups, you can see the convergence of the “working ages” of 25 - 64 years, or heck, that even ages 65 - 74 years old may be considered part of the “meaningful” years.
But older mean are where the rates increase.
If I showed you where women’s suicide death rates fell, which are about a fourth of the above, then you can really see the mental health crisis among men.
For men of working age, the pandemic doesn’t seem to have made a huge difference - but there is a big problem among old men.
Mary Pat Campbell’s MoSpace – a place to donate at Movember itself
My Movember Facebook fundraiser – my officially linked fundraiser, if this works better for you
