Updated September 24, 2021 3.5K votes 864 voters 202.7K views
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Vote up the strangest biological differences between human males and females
Of all the things that are different between men and women, it's the weird biological differences that are arguably the most fascinating. Unlike social or psychological differences, which can be influenced by outside forces, male and female differences based only in biology (with a hat tip to evolution) highlight the traits that make male and female homo sapiens truly unique in the animal kingdom. We're a weird pack of hairless apes, it turns out.
A look at the the objective, biological differences between male and female bodies reveals that men have larger brains, hearts, and feet, but have an inferior sense of smell, sight, and taste. Women have a harder time dealing with the cold and cry more, but men are more likely to suffer a heart attack or skin cancer. That's just scratching the surface: here's a look at the weirdest biological differences between the sexes.
Call it Clitoris Envy: unlike the penis, which stops growing when a man is between 13 and 18 years old, the clitoris continues to grow well into adulthood! In fact, when a woman is 32, her clitoris is four times larger than it was at puberty. The clitoris exists only for sexual pleasure, so a woman's body is wired to be more receptive to such pleasure the older she gets.
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Women Have an Organ Devoted Solely to Sexual Pleasure
There's only one human organ dedicated 100% to sexual pleasure, and only women have it: the clitoris! Sure, men have plenty of pleasure points down there, but they are all meant to do other stuff, such as boring old reproduction. Unlike any part of male genitalia, the clitoris exists only to give women sexual satisfaction.
Not only do women have a better sense of smell and sight (when it comes to color, at least), they also literally have more taste buds than men! This means a more sensitive palate and a higher number of female "supertasters" (people who can identify flavors more strongly than others). About 35% of women are supertasters, while only 15% of men can make the claim.
Men are larger than women, on average, which means that their brains are larger on average, too (about 10%, in fact). But bigger isn't better when it comes to brains. The truth is that quality trumps quantity, and the sexes have different advantages: women get their superior language skills from a larger frontal and temporal cortex, while men have superior spatial skills thanks to a more active left hippocampus.
No one likes to be sleep-deprived, but studies show that women are hit harder by lack of sleep than men. Sleep-deprived women are at a higher risk for high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, and depression than equally groggy men. The reasons are unclear, but scientists think hormones may be to blame.
Much like their big ol' brains, guys have larger tickers than women, and for the exact same reason: on average, guys are bigger! A larger heart doesn't have to beat as fast as a smaller heart, so it follows that women would have faster heartbeats in general than men (78 beats per minute versus 70). The bad news is that large or over-sized hearts are not nearly as healthy as lean, efficient hearts, and men are more likely to suffer from heart disease.
