There is a common belief that women generally feel colder than men, but is that really supported by science?
In fact, the evidence is mixed, in part because few studies answering this question have been conducted in a carefully controlled manner. That said, the data collected so far suggests that people’s perception of and ability to regulate the body temperature is not based on their gender, but rather on their physical attributes – specifically their body fat and surface area.
A lot of past research seems to support the idea that women often feel colder than men. This included survey-based studies examining people’s preferences thermostat temperatures in office settings.
Research also shows that women have, on average, slightly higher core temperatures than men, but their… hands, feet and ears tend to be colder. This may be related to women’s two main sex hormones: estrogen and progesterone. Estrogen dilates the blood vessels in the limbs, allowing heat to escape; In the meantime, progesterone can constrict blood vessels in the skin, raising core temperature but restricting blood flow to the extremities.
Related: Has the average human body temperature always been the same?
This explanation suggests why women can feel colder than men – but again, there’s probably more to the story.
Several recent, well-designed studies have discovered that the regulation of a person’s body temperature depends less on their gender and more on their physical characteristics. For example, in a small study published in the journal PNASScientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have found evidence that women and men perceive temperatures similarly and show no major sex-based physical differences in the way they respond to cold.
“We tried to figure out what happens at the temperature at which people start to shiver – where they feel cold but not completely overtly shivering,” said the study’s lead author. Robert Brychtaan NIH staff scientist.
In the study, 12 women and 16 men, all fairly thin, each stayed in a room while the scientists varied the temperature from warm to cool – about 88 degrees Fahrenheit (31 degrees Celsius) to about 63 F (17 C). The participants wore standardized outfits, as well as sensors that monitored the electrical activity in their muscles and their skin temperature.
A ‘calorimeter’ measured the amount of oxygen people breathed and the amount of carbon dioxide they emitted; this helped the researchers track the amount of energy consumed. People’s weight, height, body fat percentage and basal metabolic rate were also recorded, as these factors influence heat production.
Participants also rated their perception of room temperature using a visual sliding scale from “very cold” to “very warm.”
Men and women’s temperature perception was the same throughout the experiment, and they also shivered to the same extent at colder temperatures. The coldest temperature they could tolerate before shivering was the same, about 20 to 21 degrees Celsius.
The participants’ skin temperatures were similar throughout the experiment, although women had slightly warmer skin on average than men. Other physiological measures – such as the electrical activity of their muscles – were also much the same, but women’s basal metabolic rate was slightly lower than men’s.
Women maintained slightly higher body temperatures than men at low temperatures. This may be because the women had, on average, higher body fat percentages than men and therefore more isolation, the researchers wrote in the paper. The temperature at which women’s bodies began to expend energy to stay warm – what the researchers called the lower critical temperature – was also slightly lower than men’s, on average about 1.8 F (1 C).
Taken together, the results suggest that women and men respond to temperature changes in a similar way. Any differences you might observe from person to person are based on their individual differences in body composition.
“It’s the interaction between body surface area and body fat percentage that contributes to where the lower critical temperature drops,” not a person’s gender, Brychta told LiveScience. “While we see some differences between men and women, it’s really an individualized point.” For example, a taller woman with little body fat would likely have a warmer, lower critical temperature than a shorter man with more body fat.
The study led by Brychta and his colleagues was small in scope, but it begins to challenge the idea that women are always colder than men.
Do you ever wonder why? some people build muscle more easily than others or why freckles appear in the sun? Send us your questions about how the human body works community@livescience.com with the subject ‘Health Desk Q’, and you may see your question answered on the website!