The Psychology of Gender 4th Edition

350 Chapter 10

can be related to greater concerns with health,

but also to risks associated with involvement

in relationships. Fifth, I discuss whether men

and women perceive symptoms similarly or

whether women have a lower threshold for

symptoms, which makes it appear women are

sicker than men. Finally, I consider whether

men and women respond to symptoms in sim-

ilar ways in terms of taking care of themselves

and seeking medical attention.

Biology

Genes

Women may have a greater genetic resis-

tance to some diseases compared to men.

Women may be genetically predisposed to

better health because they have a second X

chromosome. The X chromosome carries

more information on it than the Y chromo-

some. In females, an abnormality on an X

chromosome is not necessarily a problem

because a second X chromosome is there to

suppress it; the abnormality is usually reces-

sive. Thus a female will simply be a carrier

of the abnormality but will not manifest it.

The male, however, has a Y chromosome,

which cannot override an abnormality of an

X chromosome. This may explain why more

males than females suffer some congenital

disorders, such as hemophilia, meningitis,

muscular dystrophy, and mental retardation.

Hormones

Estrogen plays a significant role in women’s

health. One reason women have a lower in-

cidence of heart disease than men at younger

ages is that women are protected from

heart disease by estrogen. The sex differ-

ence in rates of heart disease is much larger

at younger ages before women reach meno-

pause. After menopause, women’s rates of

heart disease increase dramatically.

TAKE HOME POINTS

■ Women have higher rates of morbidity than men.

■ Whereas men are more likely to suffer from fatal

chronic illnesses, women are more likely than men

to suffer from nonfatal chronic illnesses and painful

disorders—meaning that at any point in time women

are more likely than men to be ill.

■ Women report more symptoms, perceive their health to

be worse, restrict their activities due to illness, and seek

medical care more than men.

■ Sex differences in morbidity first appear during

adolescence.

Explanations for Sex Differences in Health

Next, I examine six classes of explanations for

sex differences in morbidity and mortality.

First, I examine biological factors that might

contribute to sex differences in health. Sec-

ond, I consider the role of artifacts in sex dif-

ferences in health.Artifactsare factors that

cause sex differences to appear that do not re-

ally exist. For example, men have a higher so-

cioeconomic status (SES) than women, and

SES is related to health. Is women’s poor health

a function of their lower income? Physician

bias is another example of an artifact; perhaps

physicians treat women and men differently so

it appears women are sicker, but women and

men are actually equally healthy or unhealthy.

Third, I consider the role of health behaviors,

such as preventive health care, smoking, drink-

ing, drug use, diet, and exercise; there are sex

differences for most of these behaviors. Fourth,

I consider aspects of the female and male gen-

der roles that might influence health. Aspects

of the male gender role can be linked to spe-

cific health behaviors and to general risk-taking

behavior; aspects of the female gender role

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