Starre Julia Vartan

My newest feature (which they pubbed w/out telling me, doh) for New Scientist is all about why and how women’s immune systems are so badass (there’s also a sidebar abt testosterone’s immune-dampening effects too.)

It’s important to understand how hormones affect immune function in order to diagnose and create right treatments, including vaccines. Here’s how the piece starts:

The women in my family are hardy, to put it lightly. They have shaken off countless illnesses and powered through pregnancies. They’ve managed this in spite of questionable lifestyle choices (let’s just say a taste for gin and Virginia Slims didn’t stop my grandmother from hitting her 90s before she slowed down). For at least five generations, the women in my lineage have cruised into old age seemingly unfazed by what life – or their own predilections – threw at them.

As fun and fabulous as my female relatives were and are, my family isn’t unique. It is possible that yours tells a similar story.  Statistically, women don’t just outlive men, but they are also better at fighting off almost every challenge to their health. They even get more benefit from vaccination. And there’s a reason for that. Their immune systems are superior – faster, stronger and more durable than men’s. This advantage is seen across continents, historical periods and illnesses. It is recognised by traditional medical systems such as Ayurveda.

Now, research by immunologists, virologists and geneticists is finally exposing why, illuminating the reasons for women’s long-known yet under-examined immune strength. It reveals the roles that hormones and sex chromosomes play in supercharging women’s immune cells to detect, fight and remember intruders, and in keeping their immune systems more youthful for longer than men’s.