If you’re a man and you’re reading this, you’re expected to die several years earlier than a woman.
That may not come as a big shock. After all, women have historically lived longer than men, something that’s true in nearly every place in the world. But in recent years, the longevity gap between the sexes has only grown.
Data published in 2023 in JAMA Internal Medicine found that in 2021, women were expected to live nearly six years longer than men in the U.S. — the largest gap in life expectancy between the sexes in nearly three decades. In 2022, the difference narrowed some. Still, the life expectancy for a woman in the U.S. was 80.2 years; for men, it was 74.8, the latest federal data shows.
What gives? Doctors and researchers point to several reasons women usually outlive men.
5 reasons women tend to live longer
1. COVID-19
The coronavirus is partly to blame for the recent growth in the gap, says Brandon Yan, M.D., a physician at the University of California, San Francisco, and lead researcher on the JAMA paper. Men are more likely to have chronic diseases, such as diabetes or COPD, which increases the odds of severe infection. They also face social norms for masculinity that may have contributed to masking and vaccine hesitancy during the height of the pandemic, Yan adds, “and more risky behaviors in general.”
Yan remains “cautiously optimistic” that the gap will start to shrink now that we’re in a better place with COVID-19. The virus is still circulating, but most people have some sort of immunity through vaccines and prior infections, and treatments can curb serious complications if you do catch it. Still, COVID’s taper doesn’t mean a man’s vulnerabilities will go away completely.
2. Biological differences
Estrogen, the levels of which plummet at menopause, is a hormone that’s health-protective, says Dawn Carr, director of the Claude Pepper Center at Florida State University and a faculty affiliate with the Institute for Successful Longevity.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, estrogen can help protect the heart and the brain, and it can lower inflammation and improve muscle mass and bone density. In fact, estrogen is believed to be the reason women develop heart disease — the leading killer in the U.S. — a decade later than men.
3. Stress management
There’s a big difference between men and women in terms of how they process stress, Carr says: “Men tend to engage in behaviors when stressed that are more consequential to their health than women. They might drink alcohol and smoke. And they often don’t have the same social networks that are protective to talk about their feelings and manage their emotions.”
Women, on the other hand, might be more likely to reach out to a friend or family member to talk about what they’re going through, a habit that’s no doubt healthier and greatly reduces stress.
For more information on why women live longer than men, from AARP, CLICK HERE.
