Why are older women less healthy than men?

MADRID, 29th November (EUROPA PRESS) –

Genes that act later in life may explain why women's health is worse than that of older men. Scientists have wondered why older women are less healthy than men, since men of all ages are more likely to die than women (an enigma known as the "man-woman paradox in healthy survival "). The answer, according to scientists at the Exeter University, UK, is the "intralocus sexual conflict": genes that benefit one sex but harm the other.

The researchers used mathematical models and experimental data on flies to show that these genes can spread easily if they act after stopping female reproduction. "Shared genes unite the sexes in an evolving arm wrestling," says Professor David Hosken of the University of Exeter. "The selection tries to push women and men in different directions, but the shared genome means that each gender prevents the other from reaching its optimal level."

"Basically, some genes will make a good man, but a bad woman, and vice versa." However, after women reach menopause, they no longer reproduce to transmit their genes, which means that the selection) in women is strongly weakened, then, from that moment, any gene improving the masculine The last years of life will accumulate, even if they damage the female fitness.

Professor Hosken believes that it was important to keep in mind that survival and health were not the same thing, and that the accumulation of genes for men to reap the benefits later in life depended on the ability of men to continue to reproduce after age. female menopause. Experimental data on flies ("Drosophila") corroborated the findings of mathematical models in humans, since genes that were better for male reproduction in older people tended to be less good for women.