Preview

Why Do Women Live Longer Than Men?

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
505 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Why Do Women Live Longer Than Men?
In general men have several physical advantages over women in stamina, height, strength, and speed. But these attributes don't mean much when it comes to longevity. It has been said that throughout history, females have outlived males and that the trend extends across a wide variety of species. The average life expectancy of women exceeds that of men. In the United States, life expectancy at birth is about 79 years for women and about 72 years for men. Women live longer while men die younger. There are many aging theories that try to explain why this happens, but still they are just theories.

Why do women live longer than men do? Maybe it's because women want to make sure they get the absolute last word, or because they don't get shot when they wear a dress in public, or finally because they go to the bathroom in groups to protect each other from whatever they may find in these public restrooms. There is no definite answer, but there are some statistical theories.

At all ages men have a higher death rate than women do. Even though men start life with some numerical leverage, about 115 males are conceived for every 100 females. These numbers are preferentially carved down thereafter. Just 104 males are born for every 100 females because of the disproportionate rate of spontaneous abortions, stillbirths and miscarriages of male fetuses. More males than females die in infancy. During each subsequent year of life, mortality rates for males exceed those for females, so that by age 25 women are in the majority.

Death rate comparisons for males and females in the United States at a variety of different ages reveal that there are gender differences in mortality patterns. While death rates are higher for males than females at all ages, the difference between the sexes is more marked at certain stages of life. Between the ages of 15 and 24, the male/female mortality ratio peaks because of an unexpected flood in male deaths with the onset of puberty. During this period

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Life expectancy in the human race has risen dramatically in the past century reaching its highest level for both male and female on record. Between 1981 and 2002 life expectancy at age 50 increases by four and a half years for men and three years for women and two years respectively. By 2002 women who were age of 65 could expect to live to the age of 84 while men could expect to live to the age of 81.…

    • 1215 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    According to the stats, women suffer from more health problems during their lifetime, but men die younger due to their lifestyle. More women than men suffer with chronic sickness, 57% mental hospital disturbances are women, 2/3 of the 4 million populations are disabled women and in general women see doctors more frequently than men, also women are more likely to be admitted for: emotional disturbance; neurotic disorder; depression and senile dementia. The reasons for these stats could be that women have demands of looking after other people’s health such as their children, demands of domestic labour, poor employment conditions, exposure to poor housing and greater exposure to poverty. Women also may have a lot of stress to deal with which could make them ill due to their lifestyle. Men however, may have the same amount of illnesses as women but decide not to visit doctors, nurses etc. due to feeling embarrassed, whereas women do. Men have a shorter life expectancy as they are perceived to live a more dangerous lifestyle than women. Their jobs could be more dangerous than women, such as builders, electricians and fire fighters, where their lives could be at risk. Men also ignore illnesses or symptoms due to feeling too embarrassed to go to the doctors. Men are also perceived to drink and smoke more than women and eat the wrong foods which could take a toll on their health. Functionalists would argue that women are ‘shock absorbers’ in the family, and that they provide all the emotional support to the…

    • 840 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    434V Week1DQ1

    • 532 Words
    • 2 Pages

    women and 1.3 percent of American Indian/Alaska Native women. The rate of infant mortality (death in…

    • 532 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Women’s life expectancy is higher than a man’s life expectancy. Women typically live five years longer than men. Another reason why women live longer could be because men tend to smoke and drink more alcohol than women in general. Men also take more risk than women do; Women have less chance in getting cardiovascular disease, like heart attack and stroke. Women usually develop these problems usually in their 70s and 80s, about 10 years later than men, who develop them in their 50s and 60s. Another reason why women live longer could be because men in their late teens and 20s go through something called ‘’testosterone’’. Testosterone is when the level of hormones is really high and changeable, this can create dangerous behaviours. For e.g. they may not want to wear seatbelts; they drink alcohol and they can become aggressive. These kinds of behaviours can lead to higher death rates for males.…

    • 696 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Women live longer than men, and the prevalence of stroke increases with age. Higher prevalence of death and disability might be due to the fact that women are more likely to live alone in their later stages of life, which in turn delays the access to life-saving…

    • 696 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    why men don't last

    • 592 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In the article "Why Men Don’t Last," Natalie Angier discusses the topic of why men don’t live as long as women; even though they almost always appear to be healthier. The first reason Angier gives as to why men die sooner than a woman is: they are stubborn about going to the doctors for regular check-ups. Men say they don’t need doctors and refuse; this leads to health problems that could have been prevented. Next it's because men are more likely to either drive more carelessly than women or drunk after a night out. Men are also more likely than women to be alcoholics and drug addicts. Angier also states that men are more likely to carry out a suicide attempt. Women tend to think more about it; men tend to think about it and actually do it because they don’t want to admit that they failed or are not good at something. The final reason Angier gives is: men die sooner than women because they are bigger risk-takers. Men tend to do more things that can potentially be harmful. On the other hands, Angier discusses is how men perceive how they are supposed to act: tough, macho, independent, and that they shouldn’t cry or be a mama's boy and that they can survive on their own. However, what men don’t know is that they really do need someone to care for.…

    • 592 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    There are many different social, biological and social reasons women’s health differentiates to men’s. Women are shown statistically to live longer than men although men have better health then women, I am going to talk about the different reasons why women’s health is statistically worse then men’s. I am going to group them as Social, biological and emotional reasons for women’s ill health.…

    • 582 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Women’s life expectancy is higher than men; women typically live five years longer than men (Stretch and Whitehouse 2012. In 2002, life expectancy at birth for females born in UK was 81 years, compared with 76 years for males. This contrasts with 49 and 45 years respectively at the turn of the last century in 1901(Sikin, L undated). Another reason why women live longer could be because men tend to smoke and drink more alcohol than women in general. Men also take more risk than women; Women have less chance in getting cardiovascular disease, like heart attack and stroke. Women usually develop these problems usually in their 70s and 80s, about 10 years later than men, who develop them in their 50s and 60s (Blue, L 2008). Another reason why women live longer could be because men in their late teens and 20s go through something called ‘’testosterone’’ (Blue, L 2008). Testosterone is when the level of hormones is high and changeable, this can create dangerous behaviors. For e.g. they may not wear seatbelts; they drink alcohol and they can become aggressive. These kinds of behaviors can lead to higher death rates for males.…

    • 697 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Type 1 Survivorship

    • 474 Words
    • 2 Pages

    When comparing the mortality rates of the men and women of the 1900-1919 cohort, it is noticed that most of these individuals lived through both WWI (1914-1918) and WWII (1939-1945). The men born earliest in the 1900-1909 cohort could have joined WWI near the end which could have caused injuries and deaths, and most of these men could have been involved in WWII, also causing injury and death. In addition to fighting, and possibly dying during the war, the injuries, both mental and physical, could have affected them later in life causing infection, disease, or mental illness, which could have contributed to suicide. The mortality rates do not seem that different from one another until the end of the trend. This could be because women began to work in unsafe conditions in factories while the men were at war, and when the men returned and many families began to have children, some many in a short period of time, there was an increase in labor related deaths. It has been hypothesized that in general, women may live longer throughout history because they generally have less stress, and participate in less unhealthy activities that are damaging such has over-consumption of alcohol and smoking, and women tend to have better diets than men. Some also believe that it is much deeper in our genetics because many miscarriages tend to be male and many other animals exhibit the same trend, where the females tend to outlive the…

    • 474 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Since the 1900’s, life expectancy has increased by an average of 30 years, today the average women will live to be 80.7 years old and the average man will live to be 75.4 years old. At the age of 75 years old, 61 percent of the people are females and by the age of 85, 70 percent are females. Many men die from these leading causes of death: cancer of the respiratory system, motor vehicle accidents, cirrhosis of the liver, emphysema, and coronary heart disease. By having the extra X-chromosome women have more resistance to infections and degenerative diseases. Life expectancy is the number of years that a person born in…

    • 1402 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    million more boys than girls under the age of 20.”.(Doc. E). This huge gap between…

    • 485 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Asthma Outline

    • 1994 Words
    • 8 Pages

    3. The main reason females’ percentage is higher than males are that females’ body goes through so much changes that they tend to have respirttory problems.…

    • 1994 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Natalie Angier is the author of the essay I chose from The McGraw – Hill Reader. She graduated in 1978 from Barnard College, and then went on to work as a magazine staff writer for Discover and Time. In 1990 Angier became a writer for The New York Times. A year later she won a Pulitzer Prize for her work as a Times science correspondent. She also received the Lewis Thomas Award and was one of seven journalists to receive four stars in the Forbes Media Guide. In this essay, “Why Men Don’t Last: Self – Destruction as a Way of Life,” Angier considers the differences between men and women as it relates to the marked difference in life expectancy between the genders. It was first published in 1999 in The New York Times.…

    • 474 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Issues Affecting the Aged

    • 1327 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Women experience a decline in estrogen levels and become more vulnerable to strokes, coronary artery disease, and osteoporosis. Men do not experience the abrupt change in fertility that women do.…

    • 1327 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Abortion and Its Health Effects. (2001). In Encyclopedia of Women and Gender: Sex Similarities and Differences and the Impact of Society on Gender. Retrieved from http://www.credoreference.com/entry/estwomen/abortion_and_its_health_effects…

    • 1935 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays