
Why do women live longer than men? - mpweiher
https://ourworldindata.org/why-do-women-live-longer-than-men
======
mft_
This was interesting:

 _> yet paradoxically, while women have lower mortality rates throughout their
life, they also often have higher rates of physical illness, more disability
days, more doctor visits, and hospital stays than men do. It seems women do
not live longer than men only because they age more slowly, but also because
they are more robust when they get sick at any age._

Alternative hypotheses might be that either (for sociological or even physical
reasons) that women are more aware when they're unwell so seek help more
quickly and/or thoroughly; or that men are equally aware when they're unwell,
but are less disposed to seek help?

~~~
belorn
They could also be receiving less social support to seek help and when they do
are less likely to be taken serious because of gender stereotyping.

------
jbob2000
This article misses the elephant in the room (as if how we store fat has any
bearing on it, what a joke); men work dangerous jobs.

> A large majority of occupational deaths occur among men. In one U.S. study,
> 93% of deaths on the job involved men,[4] with a death rate approximately 11
> times higher than women. The industries with the highest death rates are
> mining, agriculture, forestry, fishing, and construction, all of which
> employ more men than women.[5] Deaths of members in the military is
> currently above 90% men.[6]

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupational_fatality](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupational_fatality)

~~~
hk__2
> This article misses the elephant in the room (as if how we store fat has any
> bearing on it, what a joke); men work dangerous jobs.

I doubt it’s relevant. In 2011, there were ~5k fatal work injuries, i.e. 0.2%
of the 2,5M deaths in the US that year.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupational_fatality#/media/F...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupational_fatality#/media/File:Selected_occupations_with_high_fatality_rate.png)

[https://www.infoplease.com/us/mortality/deaths-united-
states...](https://www.infoplease.com/us/mortality/deaths-united-
states-1900-2011)

Update: I’m not saying your job has no effect on your lifespan. It does, but
mostly because of the (lack of) money you get from it rather than its
dangerosity. Job-related deaths are probably too low to be the cause of the
men/women lifespan difference.

~~~
Spooky23
We're talking about life expectancy, not deaths.

Workplace injuries and stress don't kill you, but they make you die faster.

~~~
sno0ks
Yes, musculoskeletal injury is very common in manual jobs. But whether it's
opiates today or whiskey in the past, the means to combat pain from work
related injuries must have a negative effect on lifespan.

------
taeric
Oddly, I have been assuming this question could be answered by sheer size of
men versus women. That is, I would expect that if you looked at the life
expectancy of people normalized by height/weight, it would erase differences
between men/women.

That said, I can't find any evidence on why I would think that. I'm guessing
I'm just going off what we know about dogs, where larger ones don't live as
long as smaller ones. And even that is probably much more nuanced than I'm
allowing in that short sentence.

~~~
anonymfus
IIRC human height and life expectancy are negatively correlated due to rare
FOXO3 gene which makes people's height shorter and life longer, and there is a
Simpson Paradox here: in both groups of people with and without this gene
longer height its correlated with longer life.

~~~
PunchTornado
They are negatively correlated. Several studies showed that short people live
longer.

[http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/201...](http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2013/07/height_and_longevity_the_research_is_clear_being_tall_is_hazardous_to_your.html?via=gdpr-
consent)

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22582890](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22582890)

------
robotrout
The whole "life expectancy" calculation which takes into account infant
mortality, death by accident, death by childbirth, death by violence, etc.,
seems to cloud the issue that most people are more interested in, which is
"death by aging".

Do women tend to get older than men? Yes they do, and talking about non-age
related causes of death, such as the article does, just confuses the issue.
Such a question should ignore non-aging causes of death that skew the
statistics such as death in childbirth and infant mortality in earlier eras.

Women often complain that men lose weight easier than they do, and that men
don't get cold as easy as women. Both of these point to generally faster
metabolisms for men, which I would think would cause men to "burn out" their
bodies earlier.

~~~
CogPrime
A man will generally have more body fat than their female counterpart hence
men will not feel the "cold" as easily. I'm not sure that having more body fat
than women is a good indication of a higher metabolism.

There are also more healthcare opportunities for women compared to men so I
suspect that also plays a part and then there is also the fact that women tend
to live less stressful lives than men (choice of occupation) which is probably
the biggest contributor to ones own life expectancy.

~~~
dragonwriter
> A man will generally have more body fat than their female counterpart hence
> men will not feel the "cold" as easily.

Men have lower typical body fat than women, so you are starting from a wrong
assumption.

~~~
CogPrime
After doing a bit research it does seem to be wrong however not entirely
wrong. Body fat for women is also more concentrated in certain areas compared
to men which would at least go towards explaining some of the reasons why
women feel the cold more easily.

------
PunchTornado
I know I'm just one data point, but everywhere I look, family, friends, women
live healthier than men. My father smokes 3 packs a day, drinks, eats at night
etc.

Add this to violence, murder rates, great hesitance to go to the doctor by
men, higher prison population where you cannot live healthy etc. and you have
the explanation ready, no need to look for a biological reason.

Plus, comparing to the other animals doesn't have great significance. Male
animals are more aggressive, have to fight for mating and die.

~~~
WalterSear
Men are, on the whole, also provided much less social support and education in
handling negative emotions. So it would be understandable that they would
perform more extreme forms of self-medication.

We know that related constructs vary more across cultures (ie - that present
variance in the levels of social integration) than between the genders, which
suggests that the chief causes of the difference here are more social than
biological.

------
PunchTornado
> while women have lower mortality rates throughout their life, they also
> often have higher rates of physical illness, more disability days, more
> doctor visits, and hospital stays than men do

I wonder how much is this due to the fact that women are more ill or the fact
that men don't go to the doctor even if they have to.

------
j7ake
Different levels of hormones, such as more testosterone in men than in women
can contribute to the differences in life expectancy.

~~~
Someone
Indeed. Castration seems to be a ticket to a long life.
[http://healthland.time.com/2012/09/25/do-eunuchs-really-
live...](http://healthland.time.com/2012/09/25/do-eunuchs-really-live-
longer/):

 _”A recent study published in the journal Current Biology finds that Korean
eunuchs — castrated men — lived 14 to 19 years longer than other men,

[…]

The authors think the men’s long lives can’t be chalked up solely to a
privileged lifestyle“_

------
Spooky23
Weird that there is no mention of reduction in mortality in childbirth.

~~~
bglusman
Actually, there is? It explicitly draws from and links back to a seperate post
on child mortality also [https://ourworldindata.org/child-
mortality](https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality)

~~~
Spooky23
I'm talking mothers dying in childbirth. 600/100,000 births in the early 20th
century killed the mother. Now it's something like 15/100,000 in the US.

~~~
taeric
That would account for why men used to have longer lifespans than women.
Doesn't seem to give any indicator for the opposite, though. Right?

That is, this would easily explain why women have had a better increase in
their expected life span. It would not seem to give any reason for them to
have a longer one.

------
adiusmus
It will be interesting to see the differences as the various cohorts of women
currently in workforce age. A lot of 25yo women are hard drinking, hard living
just like particular men in similar occupations.

Workplace stress and less than optimal coping strategies will cause
interesting rebalancing. It may well be that in 20-30 years women’s life
expectancy will decrease.

------
sadema
Biology, suicide rates, risk seeking behaviour, women have higher health
awareness and better adherence to treatment

~~~
sno0ks
Is that health awareness and adherence learned behaviour though? Men have
precisely zero need for healthcare until something goes wrong, but women have
various screening programmes as well as contraceptive and maternity/children
needs, among other things. This keeps them in regular contact with the
healthcare system - where they can be offered unrelated services and advice -
throughout their lives.

------
belorn
How can we have a productive discussion about why women live longer than men
when the most common cause of death before old age in men is suicide?

Here is a data question, how does the average life span change if you remove
suicide as a factor for both women and men? All the other factors that the
article hints to like hormones, biology, smoking habits, animal studying, and
so on are interesting but unless one address the most common cause of early
death then this seem a bit dishonest.

It also seems odd of the article to not acknowledge attributes that is
correlated with long life span. A large social network, having people around
you at old age, good mental health and stress treatments. Those all have sex
difference in outcomes and are highly connected to life spans, but completely
missing from the article.

------
Markoff
one would think men have more dangerous jobs -look how many women soldiers,
firemen, policemen etc there are

also women are more responsible regarding their health and prevention than men

~~~
nickthemagicman
And the majority of homeless are men.

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classichasclass
My wife eats a lot better than I do, for one thing.

~~~
dsfyu404ed
Relevant comic strip: [https://encrypted-
tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTMiSMU...](https://encrypted-
tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTMiSMUCFXYvysT8QHb75C1sWOOzt9rrLqtld6t5cx8RdaCz34W)

------
nickthemagicman
Women have easier lives than men. 99% of lower paying dangerous jobs are done
by men. 99% of homeless people are men. The glass floor is just as significant
as the glass ceiling for women. It's always an option for a woman to get
married and live a life being supported by someone. Hence, less stress and
less danger.

I'm sure there's other biological reasons but I think statistically over large
populations that's probably why.

~~~
CydeWeys
Your stats are quite simply wrong. Those 99% figures are not remotely true.

~~~
nickthemagicman
Sorry those stats were just to make point. You guys cant google?

93% of occupational deaths are men.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupational_fatality](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupational_fatality)

60% of homeless are male.
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness_in_the_United_S...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness_in_the_United_States)

