为什么女性比男性寿命长
Why Do Women Live Longer Than Men?

Women outlive men, by something of a long shot: In the United States, women have a life expectancy of about 80, compared to around 75 for men.
女性的寿命远远超过男性：在美国，女性的预期寿命在80岁左右，而男性约为75岁。

This holds true regardless of where women live, how much money they make and many other factors. It’s even true for most other mammals.
无论女性生活在哪里、赚多少钱以及其他诸多因素如何，这一现象都始终成立。对大多数其他哺乳动物而言亦是如此。

“It’s a very robust phenomenon all over the world, totally conserved in sickness, during famines, during epidemics, even during times of starvation,” said Dr. Dena Dubal, a professor of neurology at the University of California, San Francisco.
加利福尼亚大学旧金山分校的神经病学教授丹娜·杜巴尔博士说：“在全世界范围内，这都是一个非常显著的现象，在饥荒期间是如此，在各种疫情期间如此，甚至在食物匮乏时期也是如此。”

But the reasons women live longer are complicated and less established — and the fact that they are outliving men doesn’t necessarily mean they are living better. Women tend to have shorter health spans (the number of healthy years a person lives) than men, said Bérénice Benayoun, an associate professor at the U.S.C. Leonard Davis School of Gerontology. Women are generally more physically frail than men in old age; they’re also more vulnerable, particularly after menopause, to developing cardiovascular issues and Alzheimer’s disease, in part because age itself is a risk factor for those conditions, Dr. Benayoun said.
但是，女性寿命更长的原因很复杂，也不太明确，而且女性比男性长寿并不一定意味着她们的生活质量更高。南加州大学戴维斯老龄科学应用研究和管理学院副教授贝伦斯·贝纳永表示，女性的健康寿命（一个人健康生活的年数）往往比男性短。贝纳永表示，一般说来，女性到了晚年身体通常弱于男性；尤其在绝经之后，她们也更容易患心血管疾病和阿尔茨海默病，部分原因是年龄本身就是这些疾病的风险因子，而绝经后的生理变化进一步加剧了这种风险。

Scientists are trying to uncover the reasons men and women age differently in the hopes of extending life span and health span for both.
科学家们正在努力揭示男女衰老方式不同的原因，希望借此延长两性的寿命和健康寿命。

“If we can understand what makes one sex more resilient or vulnerable, then we have new pathways, new molecular understanding, for new therapeutics that could help one or both sexes also be resilient,” Dr. Dubal said.
杜巴尔说：“如果我们能了解是什么让一个性别更具韧性或更脆弱，那么我们就有了新的途径、新的分子层面的理解，为开发新的治疗方法提供可能，从而让一个性别或两个性别都能有更具韧性的生命。”

Here’s what they know so far about what causes the longevity gap.
以下是他们目前所了解的导致寿命差距的原因。

Genetics
基因因素

A growing body of research suggests that the XX set of female sex chromosomes (which, along with other chromosomes, carry our DNA) may impact longevity, though it’s not clear exactly how. For example, a 2018 study conducted by Dr. Dubal’s lab looked at genetically manipulated mice with different combinations of sex chromosomes and reproductive organs. Those with two X chromosomes and ovaries lived longest, followed by mice with two X chromosomes and testes. Mice with XY chromosomes had shorter life spans.
越来越多的研究表明，女性的性染色体XX（与其他染色体一起携带着我们的DNA）可能会影响寿命，尽管目前尚不清楚具体机制。例如，杜巴尔的实验室在2018年进行的一项研究中，对具有不同性染色体和生殖器官组合的基因改造小鼠进行了观察。拥有XX染色体和卵巢的小鼠寿命最长，其次是拥有XX染色体和睾丸的小鼠。拥有XY染色体的小鼠寿命则较短。

“There was something about the second X chromosome that was protecting the mice from dying earlier in life, even if they had testes,” Dr. Dubal said. “What if there was something on that second X chromosome that was in some ways a sprinkle of the fountain of youth?”
杜巴尔说：“第二个X染色体有些东西似乎在让小鼠免于早逝方面发挥了作用，即使它们有睾丸。如果第二个X染色体有某种东西，它在某种程度上相当于不老泉喷涌出来的水，那会怎么样呢？”

Scientists haven’t yet examined this in humans, but Dr. Dubal said the fact that we have the same hormones and sex chromosomes, and similar reproductive systems, suggests that the findings could be similar in people.
科学家尚未在人类身上进行此类研究，但杜巴尔表示，鉴于人类与小鼠拥有相同的激素、性染色体以及相似的生殖系统，这些发现或许在人类身上也能得到类似的结果。

Epigenetic factors — environmental or lifestyle elements like climate or chronic stress that impact which genes are expressed, and how — may also play a role in life span, widening or shrinking the disparities between men and women, said Montserrat Anguera, an associate professor of biomedical sciences at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, who studies this topic.
宾夕法尼亚大学兽医学院生物医学科学副教授蒙塞拉特·安格拉说，表观遗传因素——像是气候或慢性压力等环境或生活方式因素，会影响哪些基因被表达以及如何表达——也可能在寿命中发挥作用，从而扩大或缩小男女之间的差异。

Hormones
激素因素

Researchers are also investigating the role of sex hormones like estrogen in longevity, and are especially interested in the effect they have on the immune system. “There’s decent data showing that, at least before menopause, the female immune system tends to be better, more on it and better able to mount responses,” Dr. Benayoun said. In general, males “tend to do much worse in response to infection,” which in turn could shorten their life spans; they’re also more likely than women to die of sepsis, she said.
研究人员还正在研究雌激素等性激素在寿命中的作用，尤其是它们对免疫系统的影响。贝纳永表示：“有可靠的数据显示，至少在更年期之前，女性免疫系统往往更好，更有效，并且更能做出反应。”总的来说，男性“对感染的反应往往要差很多”，这反过来又可能会缩短寿命；她说，男性也比女性更有可能死于败血症。

One 2017 analysis found that women who experienced menopause later in life — over age 50 — lived longer than those who experienced it earlier. When estrogen levels drop, such as during menopause, women’s immune systems seem to weaken. And women tend to catch up to (or surpass) men in terms of developing diseases that were less common before menopause, Dr. Benayoun said.
2017年的一项分析发现，绝经来得较晚的女性（50岁以后）比绝来得较早的女性寿命更长。当雌激素水平下降时，比如更年期期间，女性的免疫系统似乎会减弱。贝纳永说，一些绝经前不那么常见的疾病，女性的患病情况会逐渐接近（或超过）男性。

Lifestyle and Behavior
生活方式和行为因素

Behavioral patterns play a key role in the disparity. Women are generally less likely than men to smoke or drink heavily — behaviors that contribute significantly to mortality, said Kyle Bourassa, a psychologist and a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development at Duke University.
行为模式是造成这种差异的关键因素。杜克大学老龄化与人类发展研究中心高级研究员、心理学家凯尔·博拉萨表示，女性吸烟或酗酒的几率通常低于男性，这些行为对死亡率有显著影响。

Women also tend to practice more “health-promoting behavior,” like wearing a seatbelt or going to the doctor for annual checkups, Dr. Bourassa said. In addition, he said that women are more likely than men to socialize, protecting them from the detrimental effects of social isolation and loneliness. A 2023 analysis found they’re also less likely to die by drug overdose or suicide.
博拉萨还表示，女性还更倾向于采取更多“有利于健康的行为”，比如系安全带或每年体检。此外，他还指出，女性比男性更爱社交，这使她们免受社交孤立和孤独的有害影响。2023年的一项分析发现，女性死于药物过量或自杀的可能性也较男性小。

External Factors
外部因素

On a broader societal level, issues like war or gun violence disproportionately impact men, said Naoko Muramatsu, a professor of community health sciences at the University of Illinois Chicago.
伊利诺伊州大学芝加哥分校的社区健康科学教授村松直子表示，在更广泛的社会层面上，战争或枪支暴力等问题对男性的影响更大。

During the Covid pandemic, men died at higher rates than women. Research showed that they were more likely to hold jobs that exposed them to the virus, like food preparation or construction, or to be homeless or incarcerated, all of which affected mortality rates.
在新冠疫情期间，男性的死亡率高于女性。研究表明，他们更有可能从事接触病毒的工作，如食品加工或建筑业，或者无家可归或被监禁，所有这些都会影响死亡率。

Ultimately, it’s a combination of all these factors that determines the life span gap, said Alan Cohen, an associate professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. “There’s probably a thousand ways that that’s happening.”
哥伦比亚大学梅尔曼公共卫生学院环境健康科学副教授艾伦·科恩说，归根结底，是所有这些因素的结合决定了寿命差距。“这些因素可能有上千种的组合。”

And even though we do have control over some factors, like drinking, smoking and diet, it’s not yet clear how significantly longevity would be impacted by changing those behaviors, Dr. Bourassa said.
博拉萨说，尽管确实存在一些可控因素，如饮酒、吸烟和饮食，但目前尚不清楚改变这些行为会对寿命有多大的影响。

“We need randomized control trials to tease these things apart,” he said.
他说：“我们需要进行随机对照试验，对这些因素进行梳理。”