The Weaker Sex
Men start out ahead: 115 males are conceived for every 100 females. But it’s downhill from there.
- The male fetus is at greater risk of miscarriage and stillbirth.
- Male births slightly outnumber female births (about 105 to 100), but boys have a higher death rate if born premature: 22 percent compared with 15 percent for girls.
- Overall, more newborn males die than females (5 to 4)
- Sudden infant death syndrome is one and a half times as common in boys as in girls.
- Boys are three to four times as likely to be autistic.
- Boys are three times as likely to have Tourette’s syndrome.
- Mental retardation afflicts one and a half times as many boys as girls.
- Dyslexia is diagnosed two to three times as often in boys as girls.
- As teenagers, boys die at twice the rate of girls.
- Boys ages 15-19 are five times as likely to die in a homicide.
- Boys ages 15-19 are almost 11 times as likely to die by drowning.
- Boys ages 16-19 are nearly twice as likely to die from a car accident.
- Men are 16 times as likely as women to be colorblind.
- Men suffer hearing loss at twice the rate of women.
- Though women attempt suicide two to three times as often as men, four times as many men actually kill themselves.
- The male hormone testosterone is linked to elevations of LDL, the bad cholesterol, as well as declines in HDL, the good cholesterol.
- Men have fewer infection-fighting T-cells and are thought to have weaker immune systems than women.
- Men have a higher death rate from pneumonia and influenza than women.
- By the age of 36, women outnumber men.
- Men ages 55-64 are twice as likely as women to die in car accidents.
- Men ages 55-74 are twice as likely as women to die of heart disease.
- In the United States, men are twice as likely to die from parasite-related diseases (in part, some speculate, because their greater average size may offer parasites a bigger target).
- Among people 65 and older, men account for 84 percent of suicides.
- Stroke, cancer, diabetes, heart disease and accidents – all among the top causes of death – kill men at a higher rate than women.
- American men typically die almost six years before women do.
- By the age of 100, women outnumber men eight to one.
- The good news? Men who live to be 100 tend to be in better shape than their centenarian female counterparts.
Compiled by:
Dr. Nesamani K.S.Vengadasalam
Pengarah Hospital
Hospital Sik