Tuesday 10 May 2011

CASE 283 - Males and females



Its obvious that the male and female human species are far more different from each other and far closer than we usually think on an intellectual, chemical, physical and spiritual level and for millenniums we have lived side by side, supporting and providing for each other in all ways possible in order to survive, we instinctively have respected and taken on certain roles in life, such as the female would give birth to the future generations, look after, provide for and raise whilst the male was out hunting or making it possible for the male and female to survive, but somewhere along the time line human males started becoming aware of their strength, the ego was formed and societies were forever based on male ideals and slowly in some cases not all but the male and female have drifted apart. There is the classic cliche arguments now between the species, males are lazy and blar blar and females are blar blar, some humans even try to compete with each other over petty reasons but we live in a very male chauvinistic society where some females don't get as many opportunities as males and the males treat the females with no repect which is not right, we need to start working together despite our differences, faults and conditioning and get along more, attract the right people.

A quick science lesson

A sex difference is an and obvious distinction of biological and/or physiological characteristics associated with either males or females of a species. These can be of several types, including direct and indirect. Direct being the direct result of differences prescribed by the Y-chromosome, and indirect being a characteristic influenced indirectly (e.g. hormonally) by the Y-chromosome.

Direct sex differences follow a binary distribution. Through the process of meiosis and fertilization (with rare exceptions), each individual is created with zero or one Y-chromosome. The complimentary result for the X-chromosome follows, either a double or a single X. Therefore, direct sex differences are usually binary in expression (although the deviations in complex biological processes produce a menagerie of exceptions). These include, most conspicuously, male (vs female) genitalia. Indirect sex differences are general differences in class, as quantified by empirical data and statistical analysis. Most differing characteristics will conform to a bell-curve (i.e. normal) distribution which can be grossly described by the mean (peak distribution) and standard deviation (proxy for size of the range). Often only the mean or mean difference between sexes is given. This may or may not preclude overlap in distributions. For example, males are taller than females on average, but an individual female may be taller than an individual male.

Obvious differences between males and females include all the features related to reproductive role, notably the endocrine (hormonal) systems and their physiological and behavioural effects. Such undisputed sexual dimorphism include gonadal differentiation, internal genital differentiation, external genital differentiation, breast differentiation, muscle mass differentiation, height differentiation, and hair differentiation.



General health differences

The World Health Organization (WHO) has produced a number of reports on gender and health. The following trends are shown:

* Overall rates of mental illness are similar for men and women. There is no significant gender difference in rates of schizophrenia and bipolar depression. Women are more likely to suffer from unipolar depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Men are more likely to suffer from alcoholism and antisocial personality disorder, as well as developmental psychiatric disorders such as autism spectrum disorders and Tourette syndrome.
* Worldwide, more men than women are infected with HIV. The exception is sub-Saharan Africa, where more women than men are infected.
* Adult males are more likely to be diagnosed with tuberculosis.
* Before menopause, women are less likely to suffer from cardiovascular disease. However, after age 60, the risk for both men and women is the same.
* Overall, men are more likely to suffer from cancer, with much of this driven by lung cancer. In most countries, more men than women smoke, although this gap is narrowing especially among young women.
* Women are twice as likely to be blind as men. In developed countries, this may be linked to higher life expectancy and age-related conditions. In developing countries, women are less likely to get timely treatments for conditions that lead to blindness such as cataracts and trachoma.
* Women are more likely to suffer from osteoarthritis and osteoporosis.

Some other sex-related health differences include:

* Anterior cruciate ligament injuries, especially in basketball, occur more often in women than in men.
* From conception to death, but particularly before adulthood, females are generally less vulnerable than males to developmental difficulties and chronic illnesses. This could be due to females having two x chromosomes instead of just one, or in the reduced exposure to testosterone.

Sex ratio
Main article: Human sex ratio

The sex ratio for the entire world population is 101 males to 100 females. However, in developed countries, there are more females than males.

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