Men More Likely to Divorce Ill Spouses
May 12, 2001 — -- Men are more likely than women to divorce their spouses when the spouse suffers a serious illness such as brain cancer, a new study suggests.
Researchers at Brown University and the University of Massachusetts found that of 23 separations or divorces among 214 couples coping with brain cancer, 18 occurred when the woman was the patient, according to Dr. Michael Glanz, the study leader. The lopsided results held true even though more male patients than female were monitored in the brain cancer study, he said.
"The number of failed marriages among women with brain tumors is very alarming, and suggests their male partners were not as supportive as one would hope," Glanz said a written statement. "Women seem more willing or more adept at nurturing their husbands through and illness, while men are not as skilled at doing the same for their wives."
Similarly, the study found that men were more likely than women to divorce or separate when their spouse had multiple sclerosis or other types of cancer. In a group of 108 married patients with MS, most of them women, 22 of 23 divorces involved female patients. In a group of 193 couples where a partner was stricken with systemic cancer, 13 of 14 divorces occurred when women were the patients.
The study — which also found increased likelihood of divorce depending upon the youth of the couples and the location of the cancer in the brain's frontal lobe — is being presented this weekend at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in San Francisco.
Surprise Among Some Men
Adjusting for the imbalance in some of the study's groups between male and female patients, men are approximately eight times more likely than women to leave a spouse with brain cancer, six times more likely to leave one with other cancer and seven times more likely to leave one with MS, said Glanz, a neuro-oncologist at the University of Massachusetts.
"I was surprised," Glantz said of his findings in a telephone interview. "All of the men that I worked with … were also surprised. But a lot of the women … fairly commonly would say, 'Duh! Is that surprising to you?' … Frequently they had an anecdote of their own."
He said he is conducting further studies to find personality characteristics or other factors tied to decisions to leave ill spouses, so that they possibly can be addressed beforehand.
"There are men who are really attentive and take really good care of their afflicted wives, so there must be other features … that help us predict which men or which women are going to leave," Glantz said.
Longstanding Perception
Doctors not involved with the study said it has long been the perception among medical professionals that breakups of couples dealing with cancer are more common when women are the patients.
Anne Coscarelli, a psychologist at the Rhonda Fleming Mann Resource Center for Women with Cancer at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, UCLA, is among those medical professionals who believe women cope better with cancer in a spouse. She says traditional gender roles in society may partially explain the study's findings.
"Women have a history of being caretakers," said Coscarelli, who runs psychological support groups for women with cancer and their families. "Men, on the other hand, tend to have a history of being breadwinners in families, and therefore may not have as much of a history being nurturers."
Coscarelli also has worked with predominantly male populations during a previous job at the Veterans Administration. She says she has seen many cases where men rose to the occasion of caring for their ill wives, but that it tends to be more difficult to pull men into counseling and support groups.
"Women have a tendency to know how to reach out to those resources, and have an inclination to reach out to them," Coscarelli said.
ABCNEWS' Medical Unit contributed to this report.