Is it true that women age biologically more slowly than men?

On average, women live longer than men, and molecular biomarkers show that their biological age is genuinely lower. But there is a paradox: towards the end of their lives, women are actually more frail and have more health problems, while men perform better on physical function tests. 'Ageing more slowly' is therefore only part of the story.

When it comes to the brain, the picture is mixed. Women have a higher risk of Alzheimer's disease than men. Sex hormones and chromosomes appear to contribute to this difference through inflammatory processes and metabolism. How men and women resist brain pathology also differs, but the outcome varies by age and stage of disease, so there is no straightforward winner.

For muscles and bones, the balance is equally unfavourable for women. Men start out with more muscle mass, and as both sexes grow older, women lose muscle mass through mechanisms linked to a stronger inflammatory response. In bones, sex differences are visible that begin as early as primary-school age; what effect this has on fracture risk in old age has not yet been fully investigated.

In cardiovascular disease, there is also a sex difference in the way ageing causes damage. Accelerated biological ageing due to excess weight raises the risk in men mainly through body shape, and in women more through abdominal fat around the organs and through metabolism. This applies particularly to the 45-to-65 age group. Whether organs in general age differently by sex is something researchers are still actively mapping, and no practical conclusions can yet be drawn from it.