Those who believe that all people are the same and the difference between men and women is insignificant are in for a big surprise. In fact, male and female bodies differ in a lot of ways, not all of them obvious at first sight. Here are 25 surprising facts about female bodies.
- 1. By nature, the female heart is programmed to beat two times faster.
- 2. Women blink twice as often as men do.
- 3. Female bodies burn fat much slower than male bodies, at the rate of about 50 calories per day.
- 4. Women have stronger immune systems.
- 5. Female muscles and tendons contain more elastin, which is what makes women more flexible.
- 6. The corpus callosum in the female brain is larger, which is what allows women to multitask more effectively than men.
- 7. There are more taste buds on a female tongue.
- 8. The female body has more pain receptors, but thanks to estrogen, which blocks inflammatory processes, women tend to have a higher pain threshold.
- 9. Women are better at distinguishing between shades of color because color perception is directly linked to the X chromosome.
- 10. Female skin is twice more sensitive than male.
- 11. The diameter of a woman’s hair is twice smaller than that of a man’s.
- 12. Women can hear high frequency sounds better than men.
- 13. A woman’s brain activity lowers only 10% during sleep, which is why women tend to be lighter sleepers.
- 14. Women are better at distinguishing the different shades of the sweet taste.
- 15. Two brain centers are responsible for female speech, which is why women can use about 3000 sounds and 10,000 nonverbal signals – twice as many as is available to men.
- 16. Women have a better developed sense of smell.
- 17. Women have a better developed periphery vision.
- 18. A female neck is more flexible. When a woman hears her name called, she turns her head. A man typically turns his entire body.
- 19. Women are worse at spatial orientation. This is the reason they have more problems when driving. For instance, 82% of men can parallel park, with 70% of this number getting it right on first try. With women it’s a totally different picture: 22% of all female drivers can parallel park, and only 1/3 of them can do it on first try.
- 20. Women are more likely to feel anxiety because they have naturally higher levels of progesterone, cortisol and estradiol. That’s why women are better at predicting threats and dangers intuitively.
- 21. Baldness is an X-linked recessive trait inherited by men from their mothers.
- 22. Two X chromosomes make the female body less prone to chronic illnesses and complications.
- 23. Women are more emotional that they cry on average 30–60 times per year while men cry 6 to 17 times.
- 24. When pregnant, 30% of women will feel the craving to consume inedible things.
- 25. Women form stronger attachments to other people because of higher oxytocin levels. They also have better developed brain areas that are responsible for the feeling of affection.
