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CHAPTER 10

Sex Differences

in Health: Evidence

and Explanations

W

omen are sicker than men. They report spending more days in bed during

the year due to illness compared to men, report more pain, are more de-

pressed, perceive their health as less good, and report more physical symp-

toms than men. Yet women live longer than men! In fact, men are more likely than

women to die from 9 of the 10 leading causes of death in the United States. This is the

great paradox of gender and health. Women have higher rates ofmorbidity(i.e., ill-

ness), but men have higher rates ofmortality.

This chapter begins the final section of the book, which focuses on the implica-

tions of gender for health, one domain in which there are pervasive and sizable sex

differences, such as those just described. I construe health broadly, as both emotional

well-being (psychological distress, life satisfaction, happiness) and physical problems

(physical symptoms, coronary heart disease). This chapter provides an overview of sex

differences in health as well as the common classes of explanations for these sex differ-

ences. First, I describe the sex differences in mortality rates and then sex differences in

morbidity rates. Then, I review numerous explanations for these differences.

Sex Differences in Mortality

Life Span

Men die younger than women throughout the life span. Although 105 boys are born for every

100 girls in the United States (Matthews & Hamilton, 2005), more boys than girls die at every

age. There is not an equal number of males and females in the United States until age 18. After

that, there is a greater number of females than males. The ratio of male to female mortality for

each age group is shown in Table 10.1. For every 26 girls who die between the ages of 1 and 4,

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