Men have XY chromosomes, women have two Xs. That extra X gives women a level of redundancy – if something bad happens, whether that be dodgy DNA or an infectious disease, the female body can chose between those two Xs and select the stronger. As a result, women live longer healthier lives.
That’s the jist of the Better Half – but Sharon goes into various anecdotes and case studies, that though often go a bit too deep into medicine for a lay person, are always interesting. Some of the conclusions seem a little stretched, such as the XY benefited the women in the Donner Party (the American pioneers who resorted to cannibalism when trapped over the winter) – I suspect it’s more to do with the men out hunting in the cold – but there’s lot of useful information packed into those pages.
Well worth a read. I would’ve given it a 4.5 (as too much medical info) but rounding up to a 5!