...they aren't

When I first wrote this node, I had hoped to shed some light on why women seem to have a lower body temperature than men. I speculated that it had something to do with a difference in basal metabolic rate, and found a study which indicated that there could be as much as an eighteen degree average temperature difference between men and women. This appears, on subsequent research, to be wrong, at least, insofar as any extremes.

As such, I withdraw my tentative hypothesis for why this might be so (differences in basal metabolic rate). The best studies to date say that, essentially, men and women have nearly the same body temperature, around 37 degrees celsius.

It may be the case that subjective experiences of differences in surface body temperature between men and women are a result of social norms regarding wearing really thin clothing when its cold out. It might also have something to do with the quantity or thickness of hair on the extremities, since body hair is a useful heat sink. At this point I'm limited to speculation, but I'll keep you updated the next time I google.

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