Eli5: Why do women live longer than men on average, even among the older population like supercentenarians?
In: 2368
We don’t really know for sure. The popular joke is that men do a a disproportionate amount of risky and/or foolish things that lead to earluer deaths. Sociologists don’t really like that answer, but it turns out to be very, very hard to disprove. This is why there’s a whole subreddit dedicated to r/WhyWomenLiveLonger
When I was selling insurance a few years back, an adage was used – “Men die quicker, women live sicker”
Basically, the idea is that men often ignore problems until too late, causing earlier death, while women will attend to even minor issues much more quickly, meaning they’ll most likely catch problems before they become series, effectively extending their life span.
Whether or not this is universally true is still up for debate, but that principle is a major way insurance companies make money.
Its pretty wild. A lot of old folks homes are women outnumbering men by a large margin. In the older days it was almost all women. I think part of the reason is historical evidence shows a lot of trends that have been changing a lot in the last 20 years and that gap is closing. Men used to work till 65 and were twice as likely to smoke. More likely to drink to much. Women tend to have social networks that are easier to keep up after retirement, Men tend to have them based on there jobs. Men historically were far less likely to go the doctor until it was to late, but this has changed a lot in the last 25 years or so.
People are pointing to social factors, but this is probably 95% biological. Females live longer than males in most mammal species.
Other commenters have mentioned the protective effect estrogen has on the heart. Women’s lower metabolic rate. The backup X chromosome.
Some other factors I haven’t seen in these comments:
– Estrogen lengthens telomeres. You know the plastic bits you have on the ends of your shoelaces to prevent them from fraying? Telomeres serve the same function at the ends of your chromosomes and protect your DNA. Estrogen promotes telomere growth.
– Height. Shorter people live longer than taller people. Presumably, having to pump the blood up higher is bad on the heart.
– Women have stronger immune systems. There is some evidence in favor of the “man flu” – men just get hit harder by common diseases like colds and flus.
– The grandmother hypothesis. Why do human women go through menopause? In mammal species that do, such as dolphins, the grandmothers tend to play a crucial role in raising the grandchildren. The theory is, women enter a second phase of their life where they stop having their own kids so they can focus on raising their grandkids. So there is evolutionary pressure to keep women around longer for the benefit of the third generation.
And others have mentioned the risk-taking behavior that’s on the border between biology and culture. Around the world, men are more likely to smoke, drink alcohol, do drugs, eat red meat, eat fewer vegetables, drive recklessly, join gangs, get into physical fights, play extreme sports, etc. If it were mostly cultural, this wouldn’t be consistent around the world. Testosterone likely plays a role here.
Metabolic rate, size, testosterone output. Women consume less calories, are generally smaller, and have negligible testosterone levels. Test puts a lot of strain on your heart, as well as being big and strong.
Lot of things were mentioned perfectly. One extra missing bit is that up until very recently smoking was much more encouraged amongst men. It has a still lasting effect.
Size matters too. Smaller statures are directly correlated to longevity and women, on average, have smaller statures.
https://academic.oup.com/innovateage/article/2/suppl_1/888/5184056
One thing I haven’t seen many mention is fat storage. For men more fat is stored in the visceral area, while women store more fat in the gluteal-femoral region. This is theorized to have an impact on life expectancy.
Another not so fun fact is that naturally there are actually more boys born than girls (about 105 boys for every 100 girls) but baby boys also have a higher chance of dying, which reduces the impact.
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.
World wide, women are much less likely to smoke or use nicotine, and are less likely to drink alcohol to excess. The difference for Russian men and women (over 10 years) is likely related to socially expected vodka consumption. The almost 6 year difference in China may be due to tobacco differences.
Latest Answers