• Question: Why in general, do women live longer than men do?

    Asked by 322eura33 to Alex, Ali, Kerry on 20 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Alex Pool

      Alex Pool answered on 20 Nov 2014:

      Great question!!

      So it’s thought at the moment that the biggest reason is that women tend to get things like cardiovascular disease and stroke a lot later than men, about 10 years later! So that would play a big part.

      There are differing views on why that is. It was originally thought it was because of a hormone that women produce that men don’t called oestrogen – but it’s now thought that’s not the reason.

      Other people think it’s because women have less iron in their blood than men. And others think it’s due to the fact that we have a different set of genes.

      So lots of different potential reasons at the moment.

    • Photo: Alison Thomson

      Alison Thomson answered on 20 Nov 2014:

      I agree with Alex! A lot of researchers believe it’s because women are born with a stronger immune system than men.

      Great question!

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