Divorce and Cancer
Denver Divorce Lawyer
For years now, our firm has followed the health impacts of divorce on men and women and noted the disparity between the sexes. See www.DivorceHealth.org. Yet another new study study confirms our observation that the health of men and women is impacted in different ways.
In an article published in the New York Times today, (http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/12/men-more-likely-to-leave-spouse-with-cancer/?hp) we see that when men were diagnosed with cancer and became ill, only 3 percent experienced the end of a marriage. But among women patients, about 21 percent ended up separated or divorced. The study was conducted by Dr. Michael J. Glantz of the University of Utah Huntsman Cancer Institute and colleagues from three other institutions who began to collect data on 515 patients diagnosed with brain tumors or multiple sclerosis from 2001 through 2006.
Women in Dr. Glantz’ study who were diagnosed with a serious illness were six times more likely to become separated or divorced than men with similar health problems. One doctor in the study speculated that differences in male and female roles in the family might explain the trend. “There clearly is an emotional attachment women have to spouse, family and home that in times of stress causes women to hunker down and deal with it, while men may want to flee.â€
Whatever the real reason for this disparity may be, we continue to argue that treating men and women the same though the divorce process fails to address the clear fact that these clients have different needs, challenges and resources. Recognizing these differences will serve all clients better.
(2 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
Loading ...