Genes that act late in life could explain why women have poorer health than men in older age, according to new research.
Scientists have long wondered why older women are less healthy than older men, given that men at any given age are more likely to die than women (a puzzle known as the “male-female, health-survival paradox”).
The answer, according to University of Exeter scientists, is “intralocus sexual conflict” – genes that benefit one sex but harm the other.
