Health Differences Between Men and Women

The physical differences between men and women are usually very clear. But when it comes to health, we treat them as equals. They both eat the same food, do more or less the same exercise and if they fall ill, they are treated in the exact same way. But new research is unveiling various differences that will change that entire mindset.

In the day-to-day life, the gender differences lead to a lot of stereotypes. These stereotypes are then the centre of all the jokes and humor. But little did the researchers know that these gender differences would lead to major discoveries in health care. So what are these distinct differences?

1. Pain: Men and women both feel pain differently. When men feel pain their blood pressure rises. Whereas in women, the heart rate rises and the blood pressure remains stable or even declines. They also feel different types of pain differently. According to researchers, women will report feeling pain sooner in tests and not endure as much pain as men. However, some studies found that men show greater anxiety about sustained low-level pain. Women experience chronic pain longer, more intensely and more often than men. Chronic pain conditions that are more prevalent in women than in men include fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis and migraines.

2. Heart beats: Women have smaller hearts and arteries than men. It also beats faster while taking longer to relax between beats. Even during heart attacks the symptoms are different. Men face crushing chest pain, radiating pain in the left arm and a feeling of indigestion. Women, on the other hand, face shortness of breath, unusual fatigue, nausea, indigestion and anxiety. Most doctors, however, continue to consider chest pain as the most important heart attack symptom in both women and men. Women are also more likely than men to have a second heart attack within a year of the first one.

3. Brain: As men are physically bigger than women, they require greater number of neurons for muscle movement. Thus it has been observed that men have a bigger brain then women. This has nothing to do with the intellectual ability. According to an estimate, male brains have approximately 4 percent more cells and weigh 100 grams more than female brains. However, both have a similar brain weight to body weight ratio. Female brains are more compact than male brains in that, though smaller, they are more densely packed with neurons, particularly in the region responsible for language.

4. Emotions: Women are more in touch with their feelings and are better able to express them. The down side to this is that it also opens women up to depression. Women are 2-3 times more likely than men to suffer from depression. The lifetime risk of major depression in women is about 20% to 26%, compared to about 8% to 12% for men. Women are more prone to depression because of their tendency to dwell on the causes of negative emotions while men distract themselves from dwelling on these emotions. Women's emotions are also influenced by hormonal changes, pregnancy, menopause etc.

5. Bones structure: A female's requirement for calcium is more than the counterpart. This is because of various factors like pregnancy, periods etc where majority of the calcium loss happens. They are 80 percent more likely to suffer from osteoporosis in old age. Also, as women age, estrogen levels decrease and the risk of osteoporosis increases. Infact, women can lose up to 20 percent of their bone mass in the five to seven years after menopause, making them more susceptible to osteoporosis.

6. Alcohol effect: Women bodies make less stomach enzyme that breaks down ethanol. Therefore, after consuming the same amount of alcohol, women have higher blood alcohol content than men. According to a study of 43 men and women reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, women absorb about 30 percent more alcohol into their bloodstreams than men do. Taking into account the weight difference between the average man and woman, a 60 ml of liquor has about the same effect on a woman as 120 ml would on a man.

7. Side effects from drugs: More and more evidences are showing that women can suffer greater side effects from drugs than men. A study done on the side effects of 10 drugs (that have been pulled off the market since 1997) put women at more risk of side effects than men. This is due to hormone fluctuations, body composition, body weight, and how their liver and kidneys metabolise drugs. Many drugs achieve different blood levels and effectiveness depending on when during a menstrual cycle they are taken. Reproductive hormones also control the time the medicine spends in the gut and the metabolic processes that break it down. The difference in woman's muscle-to-fat ratio is also a factor. But, doctors don't this into consideration when prescribing certain medications.

8. Smoking effect: Women are more at risk for certain problems related to smoking than men are. Women who smoke and use oral contraceptives or other hormonal forms of birth control are at increased risk of developing life threatening blood clots and strokes. On quitting, women are more likely to experience severe withdrawal symptoms than men. This brings down their quitting percentage as well.

9. Fertility: Female fertility decreases after age 35, ending with menopause, but men are capable of making children even when at the age of 60.

Such increasing knowledge has led to believe that the "one medicine fits all" concept needs to be changed and more dynamic and customized one should be offered to patients based on their gender. This new concept holds immense potential in the future.