Are the longevity rules different for women?

Experts say there are more similarities between men and women than there are differences

- Dana G. Smith

A new subset of expert-influencers has specific recommendations for what women should do to stay healthy longer. ILLUSTRATION: HOLLY STAPLETON/NYTIMES

(ILLUSTRATION: HOLLY STAPLETON/NYTIMES)

The loudest voices in the longevity movement tend to be male. But a new subset of expert-influencers — the “menoposse” - has cropped up, with hyper-specific recommendations for what women should do to stay healthy longer.

Are male and female bodies really so different that people need tailored guidelines around exercise, nutrition and sleep?

It is true that hormones play an important role in health. And certain diseases, including osteoporosis and dementia, affect women more than men - a disparity thought to be caused (at least in part) by menopause.

But when it comes to the basic behaviours that keep people healthy, experts say there are more similarities between men and women than there are differences.

“We have learnt a lot about longevity in women, I think,” said Dr Andrea LaCroix, a professor at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science at the University of California, San Diego. “What we haven't ascertained is that we're fundamentally different from men in the health behaviours that predict longevity.”

The New York Times asks experts in gynaecology, epidemiology, exercise, nutrition and sleep about how to optimise women’s ageing, and where the conventional recommendations may need a tweak.

The issue is not that men and women should be working out differently, experts say. Rather, they should be exercising in the same way but traditionally have not - specifically when it comes to strength training.

If a woman lifted weights in the 1980s, “people would look at you like you'd grown a second head”, said Dr Jen Gunter, an obstetrician-gynaecologist based in the San Francisco Bay Area and the author of The Menopause Manifesto.