Why Do Women Outlive Men? WaPo: Redundancy of XX vs XY Genetics

[GreatGazoo]

The most sweeping analysis to date was released on Thursday, Oct 1 which highlighted the contrast between human and bird life expectancy trends:

We analyzed adult life expectancy in 528 mammal and 648 bird species in zoos. Like humans, 72% of mammals exhibited a female life expectancy advantage, while 68% of birds showed a male advantage, as expected from the harmful effects of sex chromosomes described by the heterogametic sex hypothesis....For example, in populations in the wild, female moose (Alces alces) have twice the adult median life span of males

However:

In birds, 25 of the 31 orders showed an overall male ALE advantage, including all well-represented orders such as galliforms (Galliformes, 9%), pigeons and doves (Columbiformes, 9%), songbirds (Passeriformes, 5%), parrots (Psittaciformes, 5%), and waterfowl (Anseriformes, 3%).

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.ady8433#sec-2


WaPo summarized:

Women tend to live longer than men. There are traditional explanations: Men smoke more. They drink more. They tend to engage in riskier behavior. But the fact that this lifespan gap holds true regardless of country or century indicates something deeper is also at play.

A growing body of evidence suggests that women's relative longevity may derive, in part, from having double X chromosomes, a redundancy that protects them against harmful mutations. That theory was further bolstered Wednesday with the publication of the most sweeping analysis to date of the lifespan differences between males and females in more than 1,000 mammal and bird species...

If a baby has a pair of X chromosomes, she's a girl. If the baby inherits an X chromosome and a Y chromosome, he's a boy. In birds, however, the situation is reversed. Female birds have a pair of unlike sex chromosomes while males have the like pair... For their study, Colchero, Staerk and their colleagues collected data on the lifespans of 528 mammal species and 648 bird species kept in zoos. The team found that most other mammals are like humans, with the females of nearly three-fourths of mammal species outliving their male counterparts. But in birds, 68 percent of species studied showed a bias toward male longevity, as expected from their chromosomal makeup.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/why-do-women-outlive-men-a-study-of-1176-species-points-to-an-answer/ar-AA1NGK38

[usonian]

1. I favor the traditional "Because men behave like idiots."

From observation, and likely across time and country (we just have more dangerous tools thess days)

https://www.boredpanda.com/funny-men-safety-fails/

Disclaimer: I haven't tried any of these feats of stupidity.

I don't know if other species have this distinction.

YMMV, of course.

[quaint]

5. jaw dropping

[usonian]

6. Makes you want to laugh and cry at the same time.

[John1956PA]

2. When I was in seventh grade, I was intrigued by these two statistics.

Our science class curriculum was well developed.

It struck me that the Y chomosome sperm's ability to reach the egg over that of the X chromosome sperm was nature's way to compensate for the fact that the average male lifespan is shorter than than the average female lifespan.

[NNadir]

3. Thanks. Very interesting. I'm glad to learn I'm an inferior being. My class, fat old, bald, white men...

...is largely responsible for most of the world's tragedy, and it's nice to know that nature shrugs us off earlier.

[marble falls]

4. Simply put: men are more likely to say, "Here, hold my beer!" than women are. ...

... as I've gotten older I find it more effective to let someone else try it first - younger the better.

[GreatGazoo]

13. That is not what this research shows

I regret posting this complex and interesting study.

Definitely should not have included a question in my subject line.

[PatSeg]

7. Very interesting hypothesis

Though I believe there are other factors involved when it comes to humans. There is behavior and sociological considerations as well. Many men tend to engage in more risky behavior than women and are often resistant to change and growth. They are likely to be affected by an upbringing that encourage such behaviors.

Throughout history, it was almost always men who waged war, invaded other countries, raped and pillaged innocent civilians, etc. If we want a better world, we need to raise our male children better.

[irisblue]

8. Why Women Live Longer forum on reddit

You do mot have to be a reddit member to browse the site

https://www.reddit.com/r/WhyWomenLiveLonger/new/

[Deep State Witch]

9. Warlike Behavior

Men (well, human men) are more likely to engage in warlike behavior. Not only actual war fighting, but things like sports and other competitions. That often leads to risky behavior, which can lead to unaliving oneself.

[GreenWave]

10. Go back far enough and humans were dying off in the early 20s.

Chimps and gorillas fared much better,

[fargone]

11. So dosage compensation is not fully effective

[Javaman]

12. revenge. LOL nt

[GreatGazoo]

14. I thought it was a very interesting and well designed study

By reading it I learned that they used multivariate analysis to find correlation between matched chromosome pairs and longer expected lifetimes. Also that the pairing we see in humans, XX = female, is not the same across species. IOW in many species the paired chromosomes produce the male. This difference allowed them to compare species and find the key correlation: paired chromosomes = longer life span