Man Alive?

The discrepancy in mortality rates for men and women has been noted and studied since the 18th century. Today masculinity continues to be the single largest demographic risk factor for early death in developed countries, according to Daniel J. Kruger and his colleagues at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Several factors – including physiological, behavioral, historical and cultural differences – contribute to the disparity.

Number of male deaths in the U.S. per female death by age group:

10-14 : 1.50

15-19 : 2.37

20-24 : 2.94

25-29 : 2.51

30-34 : 2.06

35-39 : 1.82

40-44 : 1.76

45-49 : 1.46

Number of male deaths per female death from birth until age 50: 1.6

SOURCES: Evolutionary Psychology, May 21, 2004; National Center for Health Statistics. Data are from 2000.

Scientific American, October 2004, page 38

I've seen it posted on the boards here that eunuchs live longer than uncastrated men. Is there any data supporting this premise?

http://www.darwinawards.com has significantly more male entries than female entries. One of the theories is that males are more expendable for natural experiments than females since a male's part in reproduction is trivial compared to the energy a female expends. The energy expended meant that only the best systems for the female developed over the eons since they represent perhaps the most critical and vulnerable link in reproduction. Only a few males would be necessary to keep reproduction going since males can impregnate females at the rate of one or two per hour. Thus, all men are created surplus.

In other words, men can be stupid as animals because they don't have to stay alive and healthy during the 9 months of pregnancy and long enough to get the infant to self support. For similar reasons, women are said to have better senses of smell and taste.

awen

General "Buck" Turgidson : Doctor, you mentioned the ratio of ten women to each man. Now, wouldn't that necessitate the abandonment of the so-called monogamous sexual relationship, I mean, as far as men were concerned?

Dr. Strangelove : Regrettably, yes. But it is, you know, a sacrifice required for the future of the human race. I hasten to add that since each man will be required to do prodigious... service along these lines, the women will have to be selected for their sexual characteristics which will have to be of a highly stimulating nature.

Ambassador de Sadesky : I must confess, you have an astonishingly good idea there, Doctor.

While it’s certainly not possible to perform a properly controlled experiment on the comparative life expectancy of eunuchs and intact males, there is plenty of evidence that eunuchs do live longer.

Hans Fritz painstakingly combed records on the Italian castrati looking at length of life. The records indicate a significantly longer life than that of uncastrated Italian men of the period. Greater wealth and access to health care may have played a role, the extension of life expectancy was quite large.

A large number of inmates in mental institutions of the U.S. were castrated in the late 1800s and in the early part of the last century. For example, 24 boys, 13 of them aged 14 or younger, were castrated for chronic masturbation in a single Michigan mental institution in 1898. These eunuchs have had a life expectancy considerably longer than that of uncastrated inmates of the same institutions.

As far as I know, no researcher has adequately examined the records to see if age of castration has an effect – some were castrated before puberty, and some much later. As far as I know, no one has examined the type of mental problem and its effect on comparative longevity. There seems to be a PhD dissertation hidden here somewhere.

Much remains to be done with the records that already exist, but the general statement that eunuchs live longer seems to hold.

I believe that one of the reasons that males tend to live shorter lives and have more "accidents' than females, is some of the secondary effects of testosterone. Agression, drive, a well-developed sense of competition is what gets a lot of people in trouble -sometimes deadly trouble- most of the time.

If you look around the animal kingdom, it is usually up to the males to prove who is best to earn the right to breed with the females. Along these lines, and Arwen's "males are more expendable" theory is the following book:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de ... s&n=507846

Despite its title, it doesn't really dwell on religion or ethics, but more on genetics and biology. Thought provoking, most of the arguments contained in it have some research footnote to back them up. Fun reading too, unless you are a hard-core Creationism believer. I found it to be the best non-fiction book I have read in the last 5-8 years, and definitely a good price for less than $12.

I know of no country where the health statistics indicate a male life expectancy that is close to that for females. Certainly nowhere that men live longer than women.

This is usually attributed to greater risk-taking behavior by males (certainly testosterone driven, as observation of any teenage boy will clearly indicate). Until very recently the high death rate for women in childbirth tended to balance this out, but there was still a bias toward longer lives for women.

Below is a journalistic account of some research that seems to point to a different factor that may also be involved. I do have the original article somewhere in my files, but the brief note from BBC captures the essence of it perfectly:

Secrets of women's longer lives

Women on average live at least five years more than men. Men may have shorter lives than women because they are naturally less able to fight off bacterial infections, suggests research. This key difference appears to exist in many types of animals, including many mammals, according to a study carried out at the University of Stirling.

Currently, women tend to live approximately five to six years longer than men in the UK. Men currently live to an average age of 75 while women are in make it on average to 79.9 years. This differential has not closed in recent years despite advances in medical science.

Worldwide, men on average live to 65 and women to 70.

More infections

The research, which looked at various types of animals, found that males suffered a disproportionate level of "parasitic" infection compared with females. This included infection with bacteria as well as more conventional parasites such as ticks and worms.

It was previously thought that the excess death risk for men in the animal kingdom was mainly due to males taking more risks - but the researchers, writing in the journal Science, believe that this vulnerability could be another factor.

Dr Ian Owens, of Imperial College London, said that it was already known that in the US, UK and Japan, men are approximately twice as vulnerable as women to "parasite-induced" death. In other countries, he said, the risk was even higher for men.

He said that the way men's bodies worked tended to reduce the efficiency of their immune systems.

Cutting off risk

He said: "The classic explanation for low immunocompetence in male mammals is that masculinization depends on the male sex hormone testosterone - an immunosuppressant.

"Long-term comparisons between castrated and 'intact' males show that the former outlive the latter by up to 15 years."

BBC News,

Thursday, 19 September, 2002

This doesn't directly relate to the subject, but apparently women live somewhat shorter periods of time after being infected with HIV than men do, if there is no pharmacological intervention. It's conceivable that, in certain countries of Africa where HIV is common, the decrease in life span for infected women may have somewhat mitigated the normal greater female life span.

And you guys thought it was science:

http://www.gogogadgetearl.com/pics/truck-prop.jpb

Check out the gogogadgetearl.com site for some other goodies, like Donald Trump's dog.

Arab Nights (imported) wrote: Fri Oct 08, 2004 4:11 pm And you guys thought it was science:

http://www.gogogadgetearl.com/pics/truck-prop.jpb

Check out the gogogadgetearl.com site for some other goodies, like Donald Trump's dog.

That is a Darwin Award in the making.

From a BBC documentary:

JesusA (imported) wrote: Mon Oct 04, 2004 3:13 pm Women on average live at least five years more than men. Men may have shorter lives than women because they are naturally less able to fight off bacterial infections, suggests research. This key difference appears to exist in many types of animals, including many mammals, according to a study carried out at the University of Stirling.......Currently, women tend to live approximately five to six years longer than men in the UK. Men currently live to an average age of 75 while women are in make it on average to 79.9 years. This differential has not closed in recent years despite advances in medical science......The research, which looked at various types of animals, found that males suffered a disproportionate level of "parasitic" infection compared with females. This included infection with bacteria as well as more conventional parasites such as ticks and worms.

It was previously thought that the excess death risk for men in the animal kingdom was mainly due to males taking more risks - but the researchers, writing in the journal Science, believe that this vulnerability could be another factor.

BBC News,

Thursday, 19 September, 2002

Thanks for this, Jesus. The BBC documentary confirms what I always understood from my own occasional reading to be the reasons for men's shorter lifespans.

However, we also need to remember that the different lifespan expectations are averages, as well as that different males have varying amounts of testosterone in their system. We tend to think too much in terms of ideal types. If there's the benefit of extra years to be added to one's lifespan as a result of castration, the maximum benefit would be derived by young males with above average concentrations of testosterone in their blood streams.

If being of male gender or even having large concentrations of testosterone in one's system were specific indicators of earlier death or of the risk of specific diseases or disabilities - prostate cancer or other problems for instance, then there might be more medical doctors wiling to 'do good' for their patients by agreeing to remove their balls. We come into this world with certain predispositions to disease, etc. from our genetic composition. We can more likely attain our potential by taking good care of ourselves, and it is this care that may add or subtract from our potential lifespan. Of course, we need to also consider the quality of life. Castration may or may not add to that.

Just 2 cents worth from me.