Is There A Gender Gap In The Aging Process?

Female centenarians outnumber males by a 9:1 ratio. The longest documented life was that of a French woman, Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997 at age 122. And throughout most of the world, women, on the average, live longer than men. Some researchers state that it's estrogen that gives women the longevity edge. Others hypothecate that menstruation and systems related to childbirth better equip women to rid their bodies of toxins. Women incline to be more social than men, and social connections are considered to be critical to truly old age.

Yet the men who reach their 100th birthday are, on the whole, healthier than the women. They are far less likely to have demen­tia or other serious medical problems. Longevity statistics favoring women indicate that there may be some protective genes lurking on the X chromosome, the sex chromo­some that women have two copies of and men only one. Another possibility: genetics are comparatively neutral but social conditions favor long life for women. But healthy, odds-defying 100-year-old gentlemen hint of healthy ageing genes somewhere else in the genome.