Which is the stronger sex?
Although the male
is physically stronger because of his hormonal make-up and musculature, as far
as diseases are concerned, the female is the stronger sex
As a young house physician at a public teaching
hospital, I worked in a large Out Patient Department, and it never failed to
amaze me that the majority of patients there were females. Even today at the
free OPD that I service for indigent patients, I point out to my juniors that
it is difficult to find a male in the long lines outside the door. When I used
to finish my OPD shifts as a student physician, I would walk back to my room
and see many young burqa-clad females sitting in the garden, playing with their
young children and buying them snacks from the roadside vendor. What perfect
bonding, I thought.
But I also found it difficult to understand the many
medical problems the women faced. They seemed innocuous and insignificant,
hardly the type to stand in long lines for to see specialist physicians in
public hospitals. After my first few months in the OPD, I asked the senior
physician which diseases most of these women suffered from. He enlightened me,
saying many of them were young housewives who, with their imaginary complaints,
had played hooky from home. They regularly proffered the excuse that the doctor
had summoned them, leaving no room for argument and leaving their mothers-inlaw
to do the housework.
In any event, much of medicine is good history-taking,
and I find this much easier to do with the male, who tends to be direct and
precise.
Females, on the other hand, are more verbose and
cloud their important symptoms in so many non-consequential statements that the
impact on the physician is lost. I remember once reading an article that heart
disease in women was more common than one thought a decade or two ago. The
authors made it clear that physicians ignored their real symptoms, which were
wrapped in so much jargon that their significance was lost.
Females live longer than men, and their bodies are
better at fixing wear and tear because they need to have healthy offspring. In
the UK, on average women live 4.2 years longer than the male. In the past, this
gap used to be 6 years, and it has long been postulated that female hormones
may prevent certain diseases in women. Research from Ghant University in
Belgium also tells us that females not only live longer than males, but are
more able to withstand shock, sepsis, infection or trauma. Women have two X chromosomes
in their genetic make-up, and it is in this chromosome that 10 per cent of the
micro RNA (genetic protein acid) is found. This seems responsible for important
functions like maintaining immunity and fighting cancer.
But then are certain situations where the woman is
more frequently affected. According to the American Headache Society, women
experience migraines more frequently than men. Before puberty, both males and
females are almost equally matched for migraine, but after puberty, migraines affect
females at almost thrice the rate of males. Then there is arthritis; rheumatoid
arthritis and its sister diseases affect females more than men. Asthma in
midlife appears a little more common in females. And eating disorders and
mental depression are other maladies that are more common in females.
Researchers are quick to point out that female
hormonal influence may be responsible, but this may not exclusively be true.
Several decades ago, heart disease was much more rampant in males. Of late,
however, the female has been catching up, though studies show that heart
disease develops seven to 10 years later in females than in males.
So,
although the male is physically the stronger sex because of his build, hormonal
make-up and musculature, it certainly seems that as far as diseases are
concerned, the female is the stronger sex, barring a few instances. In several
conditions, however, women are rapidly catching up.
MM 14NOV17
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