This was because her body had the use of two X chromosomes, while mine had the use of only one. To review the basic chromosomal differences between the sexes, the cells of all genetic females have two X chromosomes, while those of genetic males have one X chromosome and one Y chromosome.* When it comes to dealing with the trauma of life, genetic females have options. And genetic males don’t.
Our two sex chromosomes are given to us by our biological parents before we are born. My wife’s genetic superiority began long before we ever met. When she was only twenty weeks old within her mother’s womb, she already had a survival advantage over me—one that will continue at every data point throughout our life cycles. That’s even if we adjust for other lifestyle and behavioral risk factors such as occupational hazards and suicide. From the beginning, she is likely to live longer than me no matter what life throws our way.
And my wife doesn’t win only when it comes to overall longevity. Her risk for developing cancers in organs we both have, for example, is lower than mine. And if she does develop cancer, she has better odds of surviving, as research shows that women respond better than men to treatments. More women of course do develop breast cancer, but overall men still die of cancer in higher numbers per year than women.
The cost women seem to pay for having a more aggressive immune system, one that’s better at battling both invading microbes and malignant cells, is being self-critical—immunologically speaking. The immune systems of genetic females are much more likely to attack themselves, which is what occurs in diseases like lupus and multiple sclerosis. So the only thing that I have going for me is a lower chance of developing an autoimmune condition.
What I knew that night as we rushed to the hospital was that my wife’s cells were already starting to divide, undergoing a process of cellular selection to deal with the microbes that likely entered her body on impact. They were already starting to draw on their collective genetic wisdom to undertake repair work on her tissues. And in each area of her body, be it her leukocytes, which are part of her immune system, or the epithelial cells that make up her skin, her cells would be going through an empowered and flexible genetic process of selection. My body, being composed of cells that are genetically identical, didn’t have this option.
Although every genetic female has two X chromosomes in each of her cells, every cell has the use of only one. My wife’s cells use either the X chromosome she inherited from her father or the one from her mother. My cells don’t have that luxury. Every one of my cells has to use the same exact X chromosome, the one I inherited from my mother, while my Y chromosome couldn’t do that much after the accident we experienced but sit there watching helplessly.
The ability to use different X chromosomes is one of the main reasons for my wife’s genetic superiority. As our room filled with GET WELL SOON balloons, cells in her body were using different Xs and continuing to rapidly divide. What began as a fifty-fifty split between cells that were using the X from her mother and those that were using the X from her father was now rapidly skewing toward using one particular X, whichever one happened to be more effective at doing the job required.
Even before the first emergency responders arrived, more of those white blood cells were dividing, using one X over the other. And to deal with the challenge of healing, the same cellular competition of using only the best X for the job was likely happening everywhere else in her body as well. If you’d looked inside my blood expecting to find the same thing, you’d have been disappointed.
Having the use of two X chromosomes makes females more genetically diverse. And the ability to rely on that diverse genetic knowledge is why females always come out on top. Whether it’s an infant girl’s survival in the NICU, a woman’s ability to fight infections, or a genetic female’s decreased risk of having an X-linked intellectual disability, it all boils down to the simple fact that females have a degree of genetic flexibility that males lack.
Although we belong to the same species and are more similar than we are different, there’s an important reason that females are more genetically endowed. Our very existence has depended on it for millions of years. Being the stronger sex, genetically speaking, is what allowed females to survive long enough to ensure the survival of our offspring—which in turn means the survival of us all.
My original genetics research and clinical discoveries, my life experiences, the groundbreaking work of my colleagues, and the findings of pioneering scientists challenging the doctrines of their time have culminated in this undeniable understanding: women are the stronger sex.
In The Better Half, I will explore the key challenges that occur throughout life and show how genetic females conquer them, leaving males behind when it comes to longevity, resilience, intellect, and stamina. I will tackle how medicine and pretty much everything else have all dismissed this fact.
When I was in medical school, I learned to expect that more of my female patients would report myriad side effects from the medications I would prescribe. I was also taught that the likely reason for this was behavioral—that women were just more vocal about any problems and generally saw their physicians more often than men did.
But if it’s just a reporting bias, then why are so many women experiencing serious side effects that require significant medical intervention? A U.S. General Accounting Office review of ten drugs taken off the market revealed that eight of them were withdrawn because they were found to be dangerous to women. In addition, it’s women who are more frequently overdosed unintentionally by the doctors aiming to treat them.
Although we’ve known for years from a medical perspective that women are more sensitive to chemical compounds such as alcohol, we still, for the most part, prescribe drugs to both genetic sexes as if they’re exactly the same. This needs to change. Almost twenty years ago the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences published a report that claimed the following: “Being male or female is an important fundamental variable that should be considered.” So let’s consider it.
Outside obstetrics and gynecology, the incredible advances in modern medicine that we’re all benefiting from have been almost entirely produced from research that exclusively used male participants, male research animals, and male tissue and cells. The chasms created by the lack of female research animals and female tissue and cells in preclinical drug trials leave most physicians having to estimate or at worst outright guess what might be the best dose or treatment for their genetic female patients.
When I was designing studies to test the microbe-killing power of an antibiotic I discovered almost twenty years ago, I remember how naive I was regarding the inclusion of women in basic and clinical research. To further test the effects of one of the drugs I discovered, I contacted a company that specialized in running experiments independently, so that I could corroborate or refute my findings. While designing the studies for the company to perform on my behalf, I assumed that it would be using an equal number of male and female mice.
I was wrong. It used only male mice. As I came to learn, that company wasn’t alone in this. Everyone else was doing exactly the same thing. When I inquired as to why, I was told at the time that it was easier (and cheaper) to use males. Interestingly, as I was to discover, female mice can have much stronger immune systems, which could complicate the results of an experiment that’s trying to cure infections equally in both sexes.