The UK weather has returned to summer "normal" 24c today possibly 21c tomorrow, nearly 20c difference from last Tuesday.
Where I work we have aircon. Often the women don't want it on, whereas the men do. The thickness of clothing could make a difference in how hot men feel. I have read that men have more muscle mass, which generates more heat. Apparently, men have a faster metabolism which again generates heat.
I was wondering if those of you on hormones feel the cold more or the heat less than before. In the winter some of the ladies where I work sit with a coat and a hot water bottle at 21c -70F.
It seems, that women feel the cold more, and men feel the heat more.
Comments
It’s not a universal thing
There are plenty of ‘old wives tales’ te this stuff
For example ‘you lose most of your body heat through your head’ - well if it’s winter and you are wearing 5 layers the heat has to get out where it can and your head is often the least covered bit but if you are naked you radiate heat pretty evenly.
And so it is with ‘feeling the cold’. Regardless of gender, if you are thin as a rake you will feel cold more than someone with more meat on their bones. So a lightly built woman is more likely to feel the cold, the average man usually has more body mass which gives better temperature control. And of course how you dress can make a difference. Not sure what the mechanism is but simply covering my shoulders will take me from shivering to comfortable in the same outfit.
I tend to feel the cold, I’m reasonably lean but my cycling has given me a good chunk of lower body muscle but I have matchstick arms! If I’m riding/walking I’ll be quite happy even well below zero c but in the same gear I will be frozen just taking the rubbish out.
The reason you tend to feel the cold more in your extremities, hands, head, feet is because they don’t have much muscle mass and hence less blood flowing through. Apart from insulating those bits there’s not much you can do about it regardless of gender!
I’ve certainly worked with women who are quite happy in any reasonable temperature and vis a vis. Sat at a desk in an office is a unique set of circumstances, I certainly get quite cold if I’m sat typing for very long - even if it’s a warm day.
Maybe women complain more about heat extremes? Dunno, it would be sexist to suggest such a thing. And then there’s the issue of hot flushes…..
Madeline Anafrid Bell
Cold
Estrogen triggers the mechanism that shuts down blood flow to your extremities, he explains. For this reason, research has shown women tend to feel colder during the parts of their menstrual cycle when their estrogen levels spike.Jan 28, 2015
hugs :)
Michelle SidheElf Amaianna
College Pranks
During college I wrote for the student newspaper.
One year, for our early April 1st edition, we ran a story about the impact of exposure to North Dakota's frigid winters on the female body. According to our bogus story, the body developed an extra layer of fat. We freely "quoted" fictitious scientific studies that noted the male body generated more heat through muscle mass.
The story was swallowed whole by gullible victims, especially those suffering from a case of Freshmen Fifteen..
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
My wife, 75 years of age
My wife, at 75 wants the air on in the summer and the heat on in the winter before I do. I've been on HRT for almost 5 years, and that doesn't seem to have changed our preferences at all. My wife has never liked overly warm weather and has always been able to tolerate moderately cold.
While I've never been a fan of temps above 90F I can tolerate temps up to 100F providing that the humidity is low. As far as cold goes. so long as I can keep my feet and hands warm, anything goes. I find the key to that is to keep my core temp up and wear wool sock and insulated gloves. Our bodies naturally give preference to our vital organs and will restrict blood flow to the extremities to keep the core warm. So by insulating the chest and abdomen well out bodies will share the wealth with hands and feet.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin eine Mann
Common but not universal
In my late 20's I worked in computer support/programming. The thermostat for the central air-conditioning was located in the main open office occupied mostly by females, while the computer department was located in smaller spaces shared with the hardware. Our community was very informal and there was no formal dress-code, much less a uniform. From the computer department (mostly male personnel) we preferred a thermostat of 22℃ (to counter the heat generated especially by the CRTs), while the "ladies" in the open-plan office by the thermostat (only one CRT terminal and otherwise desk calculators and mechanical typewriters) wanted a setting 25-26℃. It was a literal "war of the sexes".
In contrast my parents were the exact opposite. My father was much more sensitive to cold than my mother, who was much more sensitive to heat. In their shared home office, dad created a cubicle closed from the floor to a height of about 150-160cm in one corner to protect himself from the air-conditioner in the opposite corner. And in "winter", dad would light the fireplace while mom was still only in a light sweater.
For myself, I have noticed a marked reduction of my comfort zone since passing 45 (I am now 52): I start to sweat uncomfortably as the temperature rises to 25℃ and start shivering as it falls below 22℃. So my sweet spot just around 23-24℃.
On the other hand: In Paraguay virtually all public offices and most of the financial sector have rather strict (and sexist) dress codes: Males have to wear closed dress shoes, long dress pants, a long-sleeved dress shirt with neck-tie [strangle tight] and a suit jacket. Females may wear either pumps or sandals, pantyhose optional, dress slacks or skirt (no shorter than about 10cm above the knee and no longer than mid-calf), a blouse with a more or less generous neck-line, and an optional blazer. Given the rather oppressive male dress code, those same males will turn the thermostat down to 18℃ to achieve some comfort. I have even heard of settings as low as 16℃.
As a consequence I have heard comments about female employees having their "summer" uniform tailored with a "winter" cut.
Thanks for the examples. The
Thanks for the examples. The extra layer of fat You think this would make women feel warmer.
Women, compared to men, have higher percent body fat and deposit it in a different pattern, with relatively more adipose tissue in the hips and thighs. This 'female' fat distribution, independent of total body fat, confers protection against metabolic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes and atherosclerosis - I wonder if I start taking hormones it will cure my Type 2. A good excuse to try?
Found this
Are women really colder? Or are men just less likely to fuss and, God forbid, look feeble? Christopher Minson, an expert in human thermos regulation at the University of Oregon, says that when it comes to body temperature, women are not colder than men—we all hover around 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. (If anything, women actually tend to run a little warmer than men.) But women do likely feel colder than men (different than actually being cold) because of their smaller body size. "Our bodies are well designed to maintain our core body temperature, and we feel cold well before our body temperature actually takes a dip, it's like a warning system," Minson says. Women trigger that alert system earlier on, because with less muscle mass (but more surface-area-to-volume ratio—remember, skin is where we exchange heat and cold to regulate our temp), they lose heat more quickly.
Years ago, Canadian researchers performed a small study to confirm what researchers suspected about the role of body size—they immersed a small group of women up to their necks in cold water to see how quickly their temperature dropped, and found it did drop in relation to their surface-area-to-volume ratio and body fat. (They found the same for men, so there may be a contingent of small guys out there freezing as well.) But other contributing factors play into female frigidness: Women have lower metabolic rates than men (the rate at which food is burned into fuel) which means their body generates less heat, and research shows women typically have colder hands and feet (by about 3 degrees)—a sign their body is more apt to shuttle warm blood away from their extremities to their core, where all the vital organs are. With cold hands and feet, nothing's comfortable.
And this
Human females are more sensitive than males to brief nociceptive stimuli such as heat and cold. However, a more pronounced peripheral vasoconstriction by females than by males during prolonged nociceptive stimulation predicts that females would be more sensitive to prolonged cold but not heat stimulation.
I think one reason is women are more aware of being overweight and tend to do something about it. The hotter feeling men do tend to be the overweight ones.
Leeanna
I have worked in places that
I have worked in places that insist on ties and shirts. The women could wear whatever they liked within reason. Boy did I envy their summer frocks and open sandals.
For more than one reason.
Leeanna
It's a simple matter of science
Women are from Venus where it can get up to 300c in summertime so they don't mind the heat as much. Whereas men find the cold bracing and heat enervating since they're used to the climate of their native Red Planet, where C02 regularly freezes (and they often prank each other by dropping a dry ice snowball down some unsuspecting fellow's pants). Me, I can go either way---being a nonbinary from Uranus---and this comment was at least as scientific as Matt Walsh's documentary about the immutable, unvarying laws of sex and biology we are all subject to...
~hugs, Veronica
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What borders on pure insanity?
Canada and Mexico.
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