Yesterday was dubbed Men's Health Day by Chinese medical experts who used the opportunity to appeal to all men to pay more attention to their reproductive health, which is usually ignored by them and their partners.

Various public education activities were held around the country to raise awareness and get both sexes thinking about protecting men's health.

Due to the success of the day and to make Chinese people more appreciative of men's health problems, especially potential reproductive difficulties, October 28 each year will now be known as Men's Health Day.

It is perhaps a little known fact that men need to take more care than women as their reproductive health is more fragile than that of their partners, said Xiao Hong, director of the Shanghai Life Science Information Center at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Statistics show about 25 per cent of Chinese men have a sexual dysfunction or sexual psychological problem - and 10 per cent of couples are sterile.

The incidence rate of many andro-diseases, such as prostate diseases, sexual disabilities and poor-quality seminal fluid, is showing an obvious increasing tendency in China, experts noted.

Sexually transmitted diseases have also started to threaten the reproductive health of men, whose average age is six years less than women.

World wide, an adult male's sperm count has decreased 50 per cent compared with 100 years ago. About 40 per cent of men aged 50 suffer from a prostate disease of some sort.

(China Daily October 29, 2002)