Why Men Have Shorter Lives Than Women

Several reasons and factors have been attributed to earlier death in men. Heart disease, cancer, accidents and murder are incidences that are higher in men than women, which invariably are believed to make their lives shorter. Women all over the world have a survival advantage over men, sometimes by as much as 10 years. But the question is what gives women the upper hand? RALIAT AHMED-YUSUF writes. It is a phenomenon seen in every population and every country, women living longer than men. Most people thought this was because men did more dangerous things than women – they take a lot of risks, they don’t go to see doctors as and when due, and therefore, die earlier. Going by a recent study, women not only live longer than men, they also appear to have a more robust health. The reason is simple: it’s in their genes.
Women are known to have a lower incidence of cancer — men have a two to five times greater risk of developing the disease. Women are also better able to survive trauma, and, according to some reports, they don’t get as seriously ill from bacterial and viral infections.
According to the study, the woman’s system is genetically programmed to better resist infections and also has a back-up system for fighting disease.
The secret to women’s stronger immunity lies in a key biological difference between the sexes. Women have an extra copy of the female X-chromosome, while men have only one and a much smaller Y-chromosome.
This means women have greater access to molecules called microRNAs, which are encoded on the X-chromosome. These tiny strains of ribonucleic acid are regarded as major regulators of the immune system.
Dr. Claude Libert from Ghent University in Belgium led the research which drew up a detailed map of all the microRNAs in X-chromosomes found to have a role in immune functions and cancer.
“We believe this is due to the X-chromosome, which in humans contains 10 per cent of all microRNAs detected so far in the genetic code.” Several of these are thought to have “important functions in immunity and cancer”, he said.
But, an Abuja-based medical practitioner, Dr. Agadu Charles, disagrees with the notion that women are genetically programmed to resist infections which probably may be one of the reasons they live longer than men.
According to him, it should be the other way round. “For instance, in the transmission of most Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs), it is the female specie that is at a higher risk of infection, because the anatomy of the female’s reproductive organs is designed to receive what comes out of the male, and most times, it is at the receiving end. The virus/bacteria are able to move rapidly to a safer region within the vagina/cervix or ascend upward to the fallopian tubes as in the case of Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID), which is an ascending infection.”
Men, on the other hand, cannot easily contact these infections except on repeated exposure, because they could easily induce diuresis by drinking a lot of water before the act and pass out any virus or bacteria contacted, he added.
Women may have extra X-chromosome, while the men have Y-chromosome, but these are basically for reproductive purposes. That is why it is the man that has the key to a male-child in a family which is the extra Y-chromosome. This may not really have anything to do with immunity, he posited.
Women live longer, because they don’t go through the kind of stress men go through. The man is stressed day and night in order to cater for his family so as not to be labelled a failure. All these expose the man to health hazards such as high blood pressure, low immunity, accidents, and heart attacks, which may be why they may have a shorter lifespan than the women, he stated.
A psychologist, Abubakar Aliu, said women live longer than men for several reasons. One is that they are risk-takers compared to women. They also have higher rates of suicide, cirrhosis, accidents and homicide deaths.
According to him, some men bottle up their emotions and it causes stress to build and lead to heart problems. Others who are depressed often use drugs or alcohol as a way of dealing with it. Men are also less likely to get regular checkups than women. All these factors combined together could result in early death in men than their female counterparts, he said.
Dr. Eleanor Fish, a professor of Women’s Health and Immuno-biology at the University of Toronto, said of the findings in the BioEssays journal: “The advantages of having two X-chromosomes as opposed to an X- and a Y-chromosome are huge.”
“MicroRNAs are very important for regulating proteins that would influence cell growth and cancer, and the immune response. They can suppress proteins that promote cancer and boost proteins that do the opposite.”
If women develop a mutation on a gene linked to the immune system on the X-chromosome, they have a backup copy. But men do not.
Also, researchers in The Netherlands think they may have an answer to why women live longer than men. According to them, menstruation increases women’s lifespan. When women menstruate, they release a hormone called Estradiol. This hormone basically gives the heart a workout.
During the second half of a menstrual cycle (and during pregnancy), the female cardiac output increases around 20 per cent. This increase is equivalent to what happens when someone exercises. So basically, the female heart gets a sustained workout for a few days every month. The result is less cardiac problems than men.