The strong focus on women's health has "almost by default" revealed areas of men's health that require just as much attention, according to public health specialists in the State's biggest health board.
To address the imbalance, the sixth report on the health status of the people of Cork and Kerry, published this week, has focused on men's health.
It confirms that the health status of men living in the region is worse than that of women, with suicide among single males higher than that of other regions, and increasing.
Almost 1,000 men were admitted to treatment centres for drug and alcohol problems in 2001 - double that of the previous year, with alcohol responsible for most admissions.
"The bottom line is men are less likely than women to take care of themselves. They equate health with illness and don't look after themselves," said Dr Ann Sheahan, public health specialist registrar with the Southern Health Board.
It was time to focus on men's health, she said.
Interest in men's health tended to be "male-specific", highlighting diseases of the prostate and testis, for instance.
Increased emphasis on men's health in the wider context was needed. This should include an assessment of how the psychological pressures in modern society affect men's health, the report said.
Men are more reluctant to recognise physical illness and emotional distress and they are slower to seek help than women, partly because of society's expectations of males, it has found.
"Men tend to smoke more, drink more and drive faster than women. More men play contact games and pursue more dangerous sporting activities than women. In aiming to improve men's health it is not only the impact of behaviour and biology that needs to be addressed but also society's expectations of males."
The statements were underlined by findings that "accidents" were an increasingly significant cause of premature male mortality - most notably suicide and traffic accidents - in the region.
In Cork and Kerry, men comprise half the region's population. The bulk of these 272,978 males are aged between 15 and 44. One quarter are under 14, and 11 per cent are over 65.
More single and separated males live in Cork city than elsewhere in the region, the report found.
Married men had lower rates of psychiatric illness than single men and were less likely to take their own lives, the report found.
However, one-fifth of all men under 65 died in accidents, a category that includes suicide and road accidents.
Suicide in the region was of "major social concern". It was higher in Kerry than in Cork, and was the single main cause of so-called accidental death of males between 15 and 36. It was higher than the national average "and the gap is widening", the report found.