Population prognoses predict a far over-proportional increase in the number of male seniors, entailing substantial implications for the planning of health supply and care, as well as various possibilities to intervene preventively by specific risk avoidance or boosting health responsibility. In the future men's health and male-specific health reporting will become eminently important. A gender-specific life table analysis for the years 1998 - 2002 shows which causes of death are more responsible for loss of life expectancy of men compared to women in both the Bodenseekreis and Baden-Württemberg. Baden-Württemberg and the Bodenseekreis are regions with a well above-average life expectancy compared to other regions in Germany. The average life expectancy in Baden-Württemberg in the year 2000 amounted to 82 years (Bodenseekreis: 82.2) in women, and 76.4 years (Bodenseekreis: 77.3) in men. Among the main causes for the 5.6 year difference in life expectancy are cardiovascular diseases, cancer illnesses, traffic accidents and suicide. These groups of causes of death explain the major part of the difference in average life expectancy. An analysis of death risks specific to age and gender shows some promising approaches for health promotion and prevention based on identification of critical phases of life. In this case, special attention should be paid to infancy, as examinations made within the scope of enrolment at schools identify considerable differences in the prevalence of various disturbances. However, early adulthood and old age also prove to be important periods concerning men-specific interventions. The presented results show first possible starting points which, however, should above all make a contribution to the establishment of the topic of men's health as a focus on gender-specific health reporting, health promotion and prevention. The described target group for health promotion and prevention is, on the one hand, sufficiently large, on the other hand, sufficiently disadvantaged in terms of health to demand more attention in the future.