New research suggests that “man flu” could actually be a real thing. Tony Spitz has the details.
Tis the season: for sneezes, itchy watery eyes, coughing—and whiny dudes who can’t seem to suck it up and deal with the fact that yes, they are dealing with the flu.
According to a paper published Tuesday in the journal BMJ’s famously eccentric Christmas issue, those XY-chromosomed humans swearing that their flu is indeed worse than those of females should maybe be believed.
Maybe.
Kyle Sue, a clinical assistant professor in family medicine at Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada, argues in the paper titled “The Science Behind ‘Man Flu,’” that the term “man flu”—the idea that men suffer more harshly from the flu than women—had been something that hadn’t faced any medical scrutiny. “Despite the universally high incidence and prevalence of viral respiratory illnesses, no scientific review has examined whether the term ‘man flu’ is appropriately defined or just an ingrained pejorative term with no scientific basis,” Sue wrote. “Tired of being accused of over-reacting, I searched the available evidence to determine whether men really experience worse symptoms and whether this could have any evolutionary basis.”
