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Male sex and heart disease

K P Skandhan1

  • 1Department of Physiology, Government Medical College, Surat, India.

Medical Hypotheses
|May 1, 1989
PubMed

Insights

Men lose more iron through semen daily than women do through menstruation. This suggests that menstrual iron loss is not the reason women have lower heart disease rates.

Area of Science:

  • Reproductive Health
  • Cardiovascular Disease Risk

Background:

  • Iron loss occurs through both male ejaculation and female menstruation.
  • The role of menstrual iron loss in cardiovascular health protection is debated.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To compare daily iron loss in men via semen with daily iron loss in women via menses.
  • To evaluate the hypothesis that menstrual iron loss protects women against heart disease.

Main Methods:

  • Quantitative comparison of estimated daily iron loss.
  • Analysis of physiological iron excretion pathways.

Main Results:

  • Daily iron loss in semen (ejaculation) is greater than daily iron loss in menses.
  • Menstrual iron loss is not a significant factor in the observed sex-based differences in heart disease incidence.

Conclusions:

  • The higher iron loss in men does not support the theory of menstrual iron loss as a protective factor for heart disease in women.
  • Other factors likely explain the lower incidence of heart disease in premenopausal women.

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