If you like to crank up the heating when you’re in your home or in the shower – and love to get cosy with an electric blanket meanwhile the man you live with does not, there is a good reason for it.
Reacting to a video where a woman preferred the hot setting in the shower whilst the man preferred the colder temperature, a doctor explained the reason behind this – and it all makes sense.
Taking to TikTok, Dr Sermed Mezher aka drsermedmezherexplains shared that “if you are a woman who likes to crank up the shower heating bill, then you are not alone and there is a reason for it”.
He explains: “Women naturally have a fractionally higher core body temperature compared to men, which helps to keep those inner organs toasty but can lead to cold sensitivity that can worsen throughout the cycle – especially during ovulation and towards the end of the cycle.
“We also know that female and male body compositions are very different. On average, women have six to 11% higher body fat percentage and men have more skeletal muscle which we know is thermogenic, especially with men’s higher exercise tolerance on average.”
Talking about a common condition in which blood stops flowing properly to your fingers and toes, he says that women are more likely to have this which is another reason why women generally are more cold. He explains: “We also know that women are five times more likely to suffer from Raynaud’s phenomenon which can cause spasm of the blood vessels in the hands and feet.”
These are not the only reasons though with the doctor explaining that hormones also play a vital role. He concludes: “But even without this, women are on average three degrees colder in their hands and feet due to estrogen thickening the blood making it more difficult to get there.”