Man flu. We’ve all heard of it, and we’ve all heard the men in our lives complaining about it.
But why do men seem to take the to the flu worse than us women?
Well, science now says it’s not just to get some extra sympathy, but there’s a real reason behind the stereotype of men not dealing with the illness as well as their female counterparts.
According to a new study, estrogen has anti-viral effects, meaning women thanks to their higher levels of the sex hormone are better at fighting off the virus.
A virus works by replicating itself inside cells, but after they found that there was reduced replication with the presence of estrogen in the cell, and more antiviral effects were shown.
Lead investigator in the study, Sabra Klein, PhD, said:
“Other studies have shown that estrogens have antiviral properties against HIV, Ebola and hepatitis viruses.
“What makes our study unique is two-fold. First, we conducted our study using primary cells directly isolated from patients, allowing us to directly identify the sex-specific effect of estrogens.
“Second, this is the first study to identify the estrogen receptor responsible for the antiviral effects of estrogens, bringing us closer to understanding the mechanisms mediating this conserved antiviral effect of estrogens.”
The latest study backs up previous studies looking into the protective benefits of estrogen in animals.
The researchers are hoping that the discovery can led the way to using therapeutic estrogens to help protect against the flu.
So next time your partner is making the complaint of the century over his sniffles, cut him some slack, he hasn’t got the woman power you do to fight it off.