Are Men Warmer Than Women

Men, when you fight with your wife over the thermostat this winter, know that it is a primal battle that dates back to your cave-dwelling ancestors squabbling over the mammoth-skin blankets. You really are warmer than the fairer sex, and the reasons stem from multiple sources.

For one, men have a lower body fat ratio. (But be sure to explain that to her in a loving, gentle and re-assuring way...). Men typically have more muscles. Muscles are better at expending heat, while fat does a better job at retaining it. Note that does not mean what it seems like it means. Rather, because your body expels heat more efficiently you feel more comfortable in cool air than women. All in all, men have lower core temperatures than women and in general will have a higher metabolism.

Another big factor in the thermostat war is the discrepancy in the warmth of extremities. A man's hands and feet are about 3 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than a woman's (90 degrees Fahrenheit versus her 87.2). That doesn't seem like much of a big deal until you think about the last time your hands or feet were really, really cold and it didn't matter how the rest of your body felt for you to be miserable. It can be an even bigger deal when your woman's colder feet press accidentally up against your thighs while in bed. The science behind her colder feet has to with the fact that women's blood vessels constrict more drastically than men's in a cold environment.

Much deeper than those surface blood vessels run her hormones, and these are a major reason she's hogging the blanket. Her core temperature will vary considerably depending upon where she is in her menstrual cycle. Pregnancy will of course swing the needle about even more. On the other hand, women taking a birth control pill regularly are likely to have higher body temperatures than normal as the pill plays fast and loose with her thermoregulation.

All of these gender-specific bio-temperature discrepancies between the sexes may make for a little drama at home in the winter, but they can become an HR crisis at the office in the summer. One study has shown that air conditioning units in the workplace are generally set to accommodate male productivity. According to the researchers, women who work in offices work better at a temperature from 75 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit – about 2.5 degrees warmer than men. In fact, air conditioners have been factory-set at temperatures more accommodating to men then women since the 1960's, based upon an algorithm designed for a 40-year old man weighing about 154 pounds.