ABSTRACT
The challenges and changes that sickness and health problems confront one with are not easy for either sex—but the typical male patient may possibly present unique challenges for a health care provider or pastoral caregiver. Leaving specific ethnic issues aside, there are enough similarities between men of all cultures and races to generalize some common issues in health care giving with male patients specifically. Family dynamics may seem to interfere with effective medical or pastoral care. Often a woman has become the health care initiator for male health problems and may end up speaking for “her man” throughout the process. There are a number of general features in the uniquely male way of handling life-crises which tend to set them apart from women. These are not exclusively male, nor definitive of all men, but are instinctive tendencies and patterns in men.
