Why do women live longer than men?
It’s one of those life facts we all know but can’t explain: women live longer than men. Some men might have wondered if it would be possible to beat the odds. Women, on the other hand, might want to understand the reasons why, so they can double down on what they do well.
We’re a curious bunch of people at For Youth and we love fact-checking the obvious. Is it generally true that women spend more time on this planet than men? And is there a clear explanation as to why women have a higher life expectancy? To manage expectations, science is never straightforward. “It depends” is a very common answer, also in this case. However, there are some interesting observations. Every day observations that we might never have linked to longevity statistics…
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Women do live longer than men, right?
Life expectancy at birth in – let’s say for the year 2019 – is calculated by taking the chances of survival during that year for all ages. It is a statistical estimate, built up of individual values for all ages.
According to WHO data, women generally have a higher life expectancy at birth than men. There are actually two countries in the world where men are living longer than women, Qatar and Afghanistan. While women have closed the gap in Afghanistan in the past 20 years, the difference in life expectancy between men and women has only increased in Qatar. The highest difference in favour of women can be found in former Soviet Union countries, where women are living almost 10 years longer.
The WHO also looks at Healthy Life Expectancy at birth. This statistic only looks at the number of years without disease and the gap between men and women is then much smaller. Whereas for a country like Singapore, women have a life expectancy that is 4.5 years higher than men. Their healthy life expectancy is only 3 years higher.
Historical data on life expectancy goes back 250 years, but only for a few Western European countries. Data from those countries is showing that women have always outlived men, but US data indicates that women only started to have a higher life expectancy after the 1850s.
The trend of females outliving males seems evident, but – as shown before – there have definitely been exceptions through time and place. This overall trend is also confirmed by a recent study that looked at the Animal Kingdom: female mammals are almost living 20% longer than their male counterparts. It still doesn’t explain why this is the case and whether it’s just a difference in biology of males and females or whether other behavioural or environmental factors play a role.
Biology
Whilst men have one X and one Y chromosome, women have two X chromosomes. The X chromosome contains genetic information that is important for the immune system. If there’s a mutation in one of the X chromosomes, women have a backup. Men don’t have this benefit and this can therefore seriously affect their immune system. The higher levels of the male sex hormone testosterone in men influences the immune system as well, but it has also been linked to a higher risk of cardiovascular diseases.
Eunuchs have been used as guards and servants of harems in ancient times. These men were castrated at a young age and would not develop the same level of testosterone levels as non-castrated men. A Korean study on historic data that looked into the lifespans of eunuchs found that they tended to live about 14 to 19 years longer than uncastrated men who shared their same socio-economic status.
Other research suggests that it’s actually the lack of the female sex hormone oestrogen that may offer men less longevity benefits. Because of its antioxidant role, oestrogen can prevent the kind of DNA damage that leads to disease. It can help maintain normal, healthy cell function.
Transgender people undergo hormone therapy which changes their sex hormone levels. Research into mortality rates for transgender people showed that their mortality risk is twice as high as for cis gender people. The report concludes that it can’t be ruled out that hormonal changes are responsible for this, but that sadly other non-natural causes, proper medical care and acceptance had the biggest influence.
Behaviour
There’s also evidence that the elevated levels of testosterone leads men in the kind of trouble that could shorten their lives as these levels are associated with risky behaviours and risky environments. Driving too fast, bar fights, extreme sports, these are all factors that ultimately influence the statistic of life expectancy. Risky behaviour may also lead to taking up more risky jobs, which could lead to higher stress levels and higher mortality.
Another interesting factor is that men tend to seek medical help at a later stage of the development of a disease and, when they’re being treated, they tend to be less compliant with the prescribed regimen, again leading to higher mortality rates.
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Lifestyle
Closely linked to behaviour, is lifestyle. Higher rates of smoking and alcohol consumption expose men to a high risk of getting stroke, hypertension and heart disease.
Men also tend to have less healthy eating patterns as they generally prefer red meat and eat less vegetables and dietary fibre. These eating habits have been linked to high cholesterol, heart disease and even cancer.
On the other hand, men tend to be less obese than women globally. In most countries, men also exercise more than women. This would work in favour of a men’s life expectancy, slightly cancelling out negative lifestyle effects.
The takeaway
By the amount of times that we have used words such as “may”, “tend to”, “linked to”, “associated with” and “factors” in this article, you might start to get the point. There is no single factor that can explain the difference in life expectancy between men and women.
Life expectancy seems to be a discussion between “nature” and “nurture”. In real life circumstances it is very hard to isolate one of these factors to draw a conclusion once and for all. One recent study tried to do this by looking at life expectancy for men and women in times of crisis, assuming that the effect of most behavioural and lifestyle factors would then be minimised. The study found that even then the life expectancy of women was still significantly higher than for men.
It is probably safe to say that women indeed live longer than men. Men that want to beat the odds on an individual level, have a higher chance if they focus on a healthy lifestyle and stay out of trouble. Avoiding risky situations is something we don’t always consider when thinking of longevity. There’s still a lot to win for women when it comes to lifestyle choices as well, as global data is suggesting that women are living more years in sickness compared to men.
-FY
