There is a deeply ingrained gender stereotype that men are the stronger sex and therefore healthier than women. This means that men rarely get sick. Even when they do get sick, they have milder symptoms and recover faster than women.
However, this is not always true. When men get sick, they actually get sicker than women, and evolution has a reason for programming their bodies to be that way.
Men and women differ in their sex chromosomes and the genes they carry. Women have two copies of the medium-sized chromosome (called the X). Men have only a single X chromosome and a small Y chromosome that contains fewer genes.
Women have an advantage because they have two X chromosomes - if one fails, the other makes up for it. Many genes that influence immunity are on the X chromosome, so women's immune responses are often better than men's. So having only one X chromosome is a disadvantage "for very rare diseases that are often X-linked".
Testosterone also plays a role in men's tendency to engage in risk-taking behavior. But women's estrogen appears to protect against heart disease, stroke, and dementia until women reach their 50s.
Therefore, men are more likely to develop certain diseases than women.
Flu
A survey by Nuts magazine, the UK's biggest weekly men's magazine, found that men are more severely affected by cold viruses.
Men reported that when they got sick, it took them an average of three days to recover. In comparison, the figure for women was just a day and a half.
Men also spend more on medicine when they are ill, averaging £18.34 compared to £12.03 for women.
Even with the flu, men who contract the virus are more likely to be hospitalized than women, according to studies in the American Journal of Epidemiology that tracked seasonal flu outbreaks from 2004 to 2010 in Hong Kong and from 1997 to 2007 in the United States.
Meanwhile, a study in the British Medical Journal BMJ found that men actually experience worse symptoms than women when they contract the same respiratory virus strain.
Melanoma
Melanoma is a type of skin cancer that looks similar to a mole. However, melanomas grow larger over time, have an irregular color, and are asymmetrical in shape.
Exposure to ultraviolet radiation from sunlight is the main cause of melanoma. Men are less likely than women to protect their skin from the sun, such as covering up or using sunscreen. This is part of the reason why men are more susceptible to skin cancer.
In addition, men's skin structure is not only thicker than women's, but also has less fat, more collagen, and elastin protein, which helps the skin to be more elastic. This will make the skin more vulnerable to UV damage.
Gout
Gout is a type of arthritis that occurs when uric acid accumulates in the body, leading to the formation of sharp crystals in the joints, especially the big toe joint, causing the patient to often experience severe pain and difficulty in moving and exercising.
A study published in the journal Scientific Reports found that men are more susceptible to gout than women because women have the hormone estradiol. This is a type of estrogen produced in the ovaries, which has the ability to inhibit the enzyme that produces uric acid in the liver. As a result, uric acid levels and the risk of gout in women are reduced.
Kidney stones
When the concentration of minerals such as calcium, oxalate and uric acid in the urine is too high, it will lead to the deposition of kidney stones. Research in the journal Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation found that men are not only at higher risk of kidney stones, but also tend to have more severe symptoms and pain than women.
One hypothesis that scientists have put forward is that the male hormone testosterone affects the concentration of oxalate in urine, thereby increasing the possibility of kidney stones forming.
Source: https://giadinhonline.vn/vi-sao-dan-ong-it-khi-om-nhung-thuong-nang-hon-phu-nu-d202198.html
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