Surprisingly, women tolerate the cold better than men.

For a long time, scientists believed that women are more sensitive to cold than men. However, recent research has shown that this is not the case.

It turns out that women’s mechanisms for retaining heat kick in at lower temperatures than those of men. This was reported by a team of researchers from the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.

In their study, the scientists enlisted 28 young, healthy volunteers with no excess weight: 16 women and 12 men. The team observed how each participant’s body reacted to temperature changes ranging from 17 °C to 31 °C. As part of the research, the scientists also calculated each volunteer’s lower critical temperature, which is the minimum temperature a person can endure before their body responds in a certain way to start warming up.

The analysis revealed that men begin to expend energy to warm up at an average temperature of around 23 °C, while women do so closer to 22 °C.

The researchers also found that women are better able to maintain their body temperature when the surrounding environment gets colder, and that they are generally better protected against the cold.

The team suggested that this protection is likely due to the fact that women typically have more body fat than men.

Key Findings

In their report, the scientists wrote: “It is generally believed that women feel colder than men, but there are few controlled comparisons. We found that the critical temperature in women is lower.”

According to the team, the so-called “arctic profile” of women can be explained by their higher insulation against the cold, which is related to the greater amount of fat in their bodies compared to men.

Despite this, the researchers did not notice a significant difference between the lowest temperatures that men and women can tolerate, as reported by the Daily Mail. There was also no significant difference in the intensity of shivering or thermal comfort as the temperature decreased.

The results of the study were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.