Statistics suggest men will likely die several years earlier than female counterparts. This isn’t exactly breaking news, as women have historically outlived men globally. However, the longevity gap has recently widened further. According to a 2023 study in JAMA Internal Medicine, women in the U.S. were expected to live almost six years longer than men in 2021, marking the widest gap in nearly 30 years. By 2022, this difference had narrowed slightly, but women still outlived men by an average of 5.4 years, with life expectancies of 80.2 and 74.8 years, respectively.
Why do women generally outlive men? Several factors contribute to this trend. The COVID-19 pandemic has played a significant role in the recent increase in the gap. Men are more prone to chronic illnesses like diabetes and COPD, which heighten the risk of severe COVID-19 infections. Additionally, societal norms around masculinity may have made men more reluctant to wear masks or get vaccinated, exacerbating their vulnerability during the pandemic. Dr. Brandon Yan, a lead researcher from the University of California, San Francisco, notes that these risky behaviors have only widened the life expectancy gap.
Dr. Yan remains cautiously hopeful that as we move past the worst of COVID-19, the longevity gap might start to close. While most people now have some level of immunity, either from vaccinations or previous infections, and better treatments are available, men’s health risks are far from over. Estrogen, a hormone that significantly drops after menopause, provides women with numerous health benefits. Dawn Carr, director of the Claude Pepper Center at Florida State University, highlights that estrogen helps protect the heart and brain, reduces inflammation, and improves muscle and bone strength. This hormone is one reason women tend to develop heart disease—a leading cause of death in the U.S.—a decade later than men.
Carr also points out that men and women deal with stress in very different ways, which impacts their overall health. Men are more likely to engage in harmful behaviors like drinking and smoking when stressed and often lack the social support networks that women use to talk through their problems. Women, in contrast, are more likely to discuss their issues with friends or family, significantly reducing their stress levels and benefiting their health.
Furthermore, women are generally more proactive about their health. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that women visit healthcare providers more frequently than men from young adulthood through midlife. By the time they reach 65, over 90% of both genders are seeing medical professionals regularly. Dr. Douglas E. Vaughan, director of the Potocsnak Longevity Institute at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, notes that preventive health measures like cancer screenings are more culturally ingrained among women. Men, however, are often less inclined to utilize these health services.
These differences in health behaviors, combined with biological and social factors, contribute to why women tend to live longer than men. Addressing these disparities involves changing societal norms and encouraging men to take a more proactive approach to their health.
