He’s not exaggerating. He’s weaker. ‘Man flu’ is real, researcher finds

The “man flu” is real, one researcher has found, after admitting he was “tired of being accused of overreacting.”

That skepticism led Memorial University of Newfoundland clinical assistant professor Kyle Sue to wonder whether men were just being wimps, or if their immune systems were actually inferior. “Man flu” has been talked about so much that Oxford now defines it in their dictionaries, as “a cold or similar ailment as experienced by a man who is regarded as exaggerating the severity of the symptoms.”

After analyzing relevant research on the topic, Sue found evidence that men have both a higher risk of hospital admission and higher rates of flu-related deaths compared with women. They are also more susceptible to complications and a higher mortality rate from acute respiratory diseases.

Sue told McClatchy in an email that his report, which was more of a compilation of existing research than a groundbreaking new study, was meant to be “a humorous look at serious research.”

That explains why he included this bit:

“The male authors of this study conclude that caregivers should ‘go that extra mile to care for us when we are stricken with it, so that future shelves can be erected, cars can be maintained and football stadia throughout the land can be well attended.’”

Some evidence also supported a finding that men suffer more from viral respiratory illness than women because their immune systems are less robust.

Sue also found that pre-menopausal women are better than men at fighting off a common cold.

And testosterone might be to blame for all of it. Several studies in Sue’s research suggest that testosterone has an immunosuppresive effect, while several others suggest that female sex hormones boost women’s immune system.

“I really do believe that the current evidence points towards men having weaker immune systems than women, being mediated by differences in estrogen (immunoprotective) and testosterone (immunosuppressive),” Sue said in the email. “There certainly needs to be more high quality studies that replicate these findings under different settings ... before we can say this is the ‘truth,’ but the evidence right now is pretty suggestive.”

For all this, Sue sees the term “man flu” in its current context as “potentially unjust.”

“Men may not be exaggerating symptoms but have weaker immune response to viral respiratory viruses, leading to greater morbidity and mortality than seen in women,” Sue writes in a section of his report titled, “Time to rest.” “Lying on the couch, not getting out of bed, or receiving assistance with activities of daily living could also be evolutionarily behaviours that protect against predators.”

This story was originally published December 12, 2017 at 9:12 AM with the headline "He’s not exaggerating. He’s weaker. ‘Man flu’ is real, researcher finds."