Scientists have tested whether women get colder than men

It is believed that women are more sensitive to cold than men and tend to get cold even at room temperature. Since there are few controlled comparative studies on this issue, a group of American scientists decided to find out how true the stereotype really is.

For the experiment, the results of which were published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, attracted healthy and slim young people of both sexes - 16 women and 12 men. Before the study they measured a number of metabolic parameters, including the level of brown fat in the body, skin and body temperature.

The subjects were kept in a temperature-controlled room for five hours each, which varied from 17 to 31 degrees Celsius. For the purity of the experiment, everyone was given the same clothes - shirts, shorts or skirts and socks. At each temperature setting, participants were polled on how comfortable they felt and whether they felt cold. In addition, volunteers were monitored for signs of shivering.

Contrary to expectations, the researchers found little difference in temperature perception between men and women and in secondary measures of thermoregulation, including glucose uptake, muscle electrical activity, and skin temperature. Most volunteers started to get chilly at similar temperature values. The pattern was similar with manifestations of shivering.

Although women are physically smaller than men and their bodies generate less heat, it seems that the slightly higher amount of body fat in their bodies helped to balance the scales.

At the same time, according to the results of the experiment, the lowest comfortable temperature for women was even slightly lower than for men - 21.9 degrees Celsius, plus or minus 1.3 degrees. In representatives of the opposite sex, this indicator was recorded at 22.9, plus or minus 1.2 degrees.

In addition, when the temperature in the room decreased, metabolic changes in women began somewhat earlier, which helped them to keep warm. For this reason, female participants had slightly higher body temperatures than male subjects in the cooler environment.

In past studies, some scientists have suggested that women get chilly at higher temperatures than men. This has been attributed to sex-specific physiological differences in heat production and loss, as well as the different thermal needs of male and female bodies.

However, the new experiment did not confirm any of these hypotheses. The authors of the scientific work concluded that the size and constitution of the body, probably to a greater extent than gender, affect the temperature perception and the occurrence of chilliness in people.

However, this small study is unlikely to settle the question. Large trials with a large and diverse sample of participants are needed to draw a generalizable conclusion.