Gender and Health is a book intended to improve health by informing both personal choices and policy decisions. It is designed for researchers, policymakers, and others who want to understand the ways in which both differences in women's and men's lives and in their physiology contribute to the paradoxical differences in their health.

The discrepancies are clear. Women live longer than men, yet they have higher morbidity rates. Men experience more life-threatening chronic diseases, whereas women have more nonfatal acute and chronic conditions. Furthermore, although the overall rate of serious mental illness is similar for men and women, the most common mental health disorders differ by gender. Most notably, women experience higher rates of depression and anxiety disorders, whereas men have higher rates of substance abuse and antisocial behavior disorders.

Are the factors underlying these health differences physiological, social, or both? Obviously, biological sex differences have health consequences. Yet biology is not destiny. In fact, even physiological differences in adult men and women may be socially acquired. Interactions between social and biological factors as well as those between mental and physical health further complicate the picture. For example, osteoporosis traditionally has been viewed as the product of hormonal deficiency as well as the lack of weight-bearing exercise and a poor diet, both of which are related to multiple social factors. In addition, recent research indicates that depression, which may be attributable to both social and biological factors, can also increase the risk of osteoporosis.