It’s a fact that women live longer than men, but it’s not so easy to say which sex ages better. For starters, how do you define aging well? Is it in retaining memory or looking good or enjoying life more? Who ages best? Guys or gals and why the difference?
What is clear is that men and women age differently. It has to do with hormonal differences, collagen retention, and some factors that aren’t well understood. Most experts would agree, however, that while men don’t live as long as women, they do age better during the years that they do have.
Why Do Women Live Longer?
In the United States, women, on average, live 5+ years longer than men. According to the CDC, life expectancy in 2020 was 74.5 years for men and 80.2 for women. Here’s an interesting tidbit: life expectancy in both genders declined from 2019 (due largely to COVID), but it decreased 1.8 years for men and only 1.2 years for women, slightly widening the gap.
Some of the longevity differences between the sexes might be because men are more likely to engage in risky behaviors and less likely to seek regular medical attention. However, it’s hard to see that this explains such a large disparity. It seems that women live longer for reasons we don’t entirely understand.
Measures of Aging
Several parameters for evaluating aging include hormonal factors, skin appearance, and cognitive function.
Hormones
As they grow older, women lose estrogen and men lose testosterone. The change in testosterone levels is more gradual. This decline in testosterone causes a reduction in libido, but, more relevant to aging, it leads to muscle loss. Estrogen levels in women drop significantly at menopause, and effects on the body are more dramatic. They include bone density loss and differences in how fat is stored.
Hormonal changes aren’t a picnic for anyone, but they’re more rapid in women and likely to have more noticeable consequences.
Appearance
Why do guys get better looking with age? It’s been said that older men look distinguished but older women just look old. Some of that is the bias inherent in societal expectations, but it’s also due to skin tone. Men lose collagen more gradually than women.
Collagen is a protein that exists in the skin and connective tissues, and it’s a big part of what keeps the skin hydrated and elastic. Men start losing collagen earlier in life, but the drop is gradual and it continues to be gradual as they age. Women generally lose collagen after menopause, and the decline is rapid. It leads to “wrinkly” skin and a more aged appearance.
Cognition
Some studies indicate that women suffer more rapid cognitive decline than men, but it also appears that women had better cognition to begin with. Women may better retain youth’s mental processing speed and memory into middle age. But they lose this advantage as both genders grow older.
What’s interesting is which members of each sex suffer the greatest cognitive impairment. Studies suggest that the men most likely to slip are those with physical issues such as diabetes, excess weight, or a stroke. Independence and a strong social network are keys to maintaining brainpower for women.
Dementia
Dementia, including Alzheimer’s, strikes twice as many women as it does men. Brain scans show that brain cells die faster in women. Some of the difference is due to the fact that women live longer, but that doesn’t statistically explain everything. The incidence of dementia increases with age, but it’s caused more by the state of the brain than by age alone.
Despite ongoing research, it’s not clear why this gender disparity exists.
Attitude toward Aging
One study indicated that older women were 15 percent less likely than older men to consider longevity a good thing. This isn’t a huge difference, but it exceeds the mark for statistical significance. Could it be because society tends to discount senior women even more than senior men, or is it simply because aging hits women harder? Or do those extra five years give women just a little longer to tire of living to a ripe old age?
Exercise and Aging
Everybody undergoes change as they age, but many of those changes are caused not by age itself but by lack of exercise. For men, exercise is necessary to slow the muscle loss caused by declining testosterone. While osteoporosis, or “thin bones,” isn’t as big a risk as in women, older men are still more susceptible to fractures than younger fellows.
For women, exercise not only helps prevent osteoporosis but also reduces the risk of breast cancer and other diseases.
While old age isn’t too late to increase physical activity, the healthiest seniors are those who have exercised all their lives. They retain muscle mass and bone density and develop resistance to chronic diseases at a level associated with younger people.
Many women who are seniors today grew up in an era when girls were not encouraged to be physically active. Perhaps we’ll see some differences as a younger generation of women reaches their senior years.
Cosmetic Surgery
Some seniors turn to cosmetic surgery to improve their appearance, but more commonly people seek this kind of surgical enhancement at a younger age. At every age, more women get plastic surgery than do men. In 2019, 92 percent of these procedures went to women. Though the imbalance may be changing, particularly among younger people, men tend to favor less invasive procedures such as Botox treatment, fillers, and chemical peels.
Over 40 percent of plastic surgery is performed on people between the ages of 35 and 50. Slightly over eight percent of cosmetic procedures go to seniors 65 and older. However, these numbers are increasing. It may become more common to see older women who “have had some work done,” and there may also be a few more men.
Gender Is Only One Factor in Aging
Women live longer than men, and men seem to experience less difficulty with aging. However, genetics and lifestyle also play a big role in how people age, no matter which sex they belong to.
The only way to avoid the effects of aging is to die young. Those who chose their ancestors wisely and who maintain a healthy lifestyle with a positive attitude are more likely to deal well with the adversities of aging. Gender is a component but only one of many.