Why do men have shorter life expectancy than women??

[Trien Chieu]

It's well known that men have shorter life expectancy than women by a few (3-5) years. This is true for all races (black, white, asian, hispanic, middle eastern, american indian, ect...). What is the reason behind all this?? I don't believe women have longer life expectancy just because they are women. I think the main reason men have shorter life expectancy is because they tend to abuse themself more. If the lifestyle of men is as healthy as women's, their life expectancy would be somewhat the same.

What do you think??

[Banh Mi]

First of all, as babies, males outnumber females. But more males die early than females, so it evens out through the life cycle.

Women outliving men has been attributed to men being high risk takers, and exposing themselves to dangerous environments.

Heavy lifting jobs are usually reserved for men, war is reserved for men, and most jobs with an occupational risk are done by men. Also lifestyle and dietary choices, men are more likely to be alcoholics and smokers than women.
There's a whole host of things. I'm not sure about diseases, I know Autism is more likely in males than in females.

[PJ]

I don't know if biology contributes to this trend or not, but I think lifestyle certainly does. Men tend to work harder than woman in many ways, as Banh Mi pointed out a few examples. Because of that, men deteriorate sooner.

[Candide]

Coz we work harder, and we want to.

Besides, gotta leave a few things for women to be better than us at.

[Lucre]

not that i cared, so long as i get to outlive you guys.

[odbayarb2000]

I read that biology contributes as well. Women has more T cells and thus their immune system lasts longer than men. Men are vulnerable to deceases when they get older.

[Zhuge Liang]

Cuz they nag us to death.

[JamesG]

Maybe women just don't want men to beat them at anything.

[UncleBelly]

I remember these studies on life expectancies... I believe the sample size includes children from birth. A lot of males die within the first 25 years of their lives, auto accidents, stunts performed in teenage years, fights, robbery etc... Thats why if you are male, under 25... your auto insurance premiums are higher than the average person. I believe once you are above 30, the mortality rates for both genders are very similar. Thus, its behavior related mortality that actually skews the statistics. Another issue is hormones but I believe the behavior related deaths are the key drivers. One could argue the presence of testosterone drives behavior to a certain extent.