Eli5: Why do women live longer than men on average, even among the older population like supercentenarians?
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I haven’t seen the Grandmother Hypothesis posted yet. People have answered the physical part of why, but the real question is why evolution has preserved women past active childbearing. Most species do not have the marked difference humans have where women age for decades beyond men.
The Grandmother Hypothesis speculates that grandparents provide a notable evolutionary advantage to their adult children and grandchildren. A child who has a living grandparent has a mentor, babysitter and additional resources.
One of the truly annoying parts of this theory is that metabolic conservative is a large part of the menopause body change. Women need fewer calories because they were typically *given* fewer and survival required conservative. If you eat last at the kill, you’re going to need your body to be ok with that. Makes it incredibly hard to take pounds off after estrogen stops doing its magic.
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