Who gets colder more – men or women?

There is an opinion that women tolerate cold worse than men, and under equal conditions, women are always colder. However, there is no clear data on this matter. This is partly due to the fact that there are not many scientific studies looking at differences between men and women in terms of susceptibility to cold. However, existing data suggest that in fact there are no such differences between the sexes. In addition, there is no evidence that women are more likely than men to suffer from various colds due to hypothermia. A recent study by scientists has further confirmed this.

Who gets colder? Men or women? There is an opinion that women get colder in the cold. Photo source: the-steppe.com. Photo.

There is an opinion that women freeze more in the cold. Photo source: the-steppe.com

Women's body temperature is higher than men

In a recent study, scientists recruited 12 women and 16 men. All of them were thin enough to rule out the influence of body fat on the ability to tolerate the cold. The task for the authors of the work was to find out what happens to men and women at different temperatures – from 31 degrees Celsius to 17 degrees.

All participants in the experiment were dressed in the same clothes, and also had sensors on their bodies that monitored not only body temperature, but also electrical activity in the muscles. They also used a “calorimeter” to measure the amount of oxygen people breathed in and the amount of carbon dioxide they exhaled. This allowed them to track the amount of energy expended.

To make the study even more accurate, the authors also took into account weight, height, body fat percentage and some other factors. As a result, the first thing they paid attention to was the body temperature of the volunteers. In women it turned out to be slightly higher than in men, but at the same time, women's hands, feet and ears are usually colder.

The body temperature of women is higher than that of men. Women's body temperature is slightly higher than that of men. Photo source: hibiny.ru. Photo.

Women have a slightly higher body temperature than men. Photo source: hibiny.ru

It is quite possible that this difference is associated with female sex hormones such as estrogen and progesterone. Estrogen dilates blood vessels in the extremities, which can cause heat to escape quickly. Progesterone, on the other hand, constricts the blood vessels in the skin, and this may be the cause of higher body temperature overall.

In the 19th century, the body temperature of both women and men was higher than now. The average was 37 degrees Celsius.

In addition, women's higher body temperature in the cold may be associated with a higher percentage of body fat than men. It provides some thermal insulation to the body. From this we can conclude that due to the higher temperature, women, under equal conditions in the cold, begin to shiver faster. However, during the experiment this assumption was not confirmed.

Women's body temperature is higher than men's. The study showed that men and women tolerate the cold equally. Photo source: www.ttelegraf.ru. Photo.

A study has shown that men and women tolerate the cold equally. Photo source: www.ttelegraf.ru

Women and men tolerate the cold equally

Participants self-rated their perception of cold on a scale from “very cold” to “very hot.” The temperature perception of men and women was the same throughout the experiment. Participants of both sexes shivered equally in cold temperatures. Moreover, the lowest temperature at which people did not start to freeze was the same – 20-21 degrees Celsius.

The skin temperature of the volunteers was also approximately the same, but in women, as mentioned above, on average it was slightly higher. Other physiological indicators in men and women were also almost the same, but women had a slightly lower basal metabolic rate. This term refers to the minimum amount of calories that a person expends at rest to maintain life.

Women and men tolerate cold equally. The perception of cold depends on the percentage of body fat. Photo source: dzen.ru. Photo.

The perception of cold depends on your body fat percentage. Photo source: dzen.ru

The ambient temperature at which the female body begins to spend more energy to maintain body temperature was higher than that of men by about 1 degree. But overall, the results showed that men and women responded similarly to cold. The researchers report this in the journal PNAS. The differences that were found are more individual, and may be associated with the higher body fat content of women.

Be sure to visit our Zen and Telegram channels, here you will find the most interesting news from the world of science and the latest discoveries!

It must be said that these findings are consistent with previous studies in which scientists came to the same conclusion – the perception of cold and the ability to tolerate it depend on the individual characteristics of the body, not gender. This primarily concerns body fat percentage and body surface area. In addition, there are other factors, such as hardening. A hardened person is less susceptible to cold than an unhardened person. Therefore, the opinion that women are more afraid of the cold than men has no scientific evidence.


Date:

by