The most likely contributing factor involves women's diets, which tend to include more vegetables. But women may also be mire likeky to report illness to their doctors.

David Kahane, a political theorist and author of the essay "Male Feminism as Oxymoron," said men should take a more inquisitive approach to their interactions with women. "As humans, we often have a tendency to read other people's experience through our own," he said. Men should, "drop the assumption that we know what the position of the women around us is like." He said men can do this by taking seriously the condescension and violence women often experience from men. This in itself may force men to look at their own actions and could curb comments that make women feel uncomfortable, Kahane said. He stresses men should do this without beating up on themselves