Whether one is male or female is one of the most important predictors of how long one is likely to live and what diseases one is likely to encounter. Researchers have long been puzzled by the mechanisms that could underlie such profound sex differences. Recent findings suggest a key role is played by physiological stress responses—how men and women respond differently to psychosocial stressors in everyday life. This review focuses on two important physiological stress systems: the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (which regulates the stress hormone cortisol) and the autonomic nervous system. The general pattern is that between puberty and menopause, the responses of these systems to experimental psychosocial stress are lower in females, and their changes with menopause, estrogen administration, and pregnancy have suggested that estrogen plays a key role in regulating stress responsiveness. This review presents a hypothesis that mechanisms that regulate these sex differences have been driven by evolutionary pressures to transform information about prevailing environmental conditions to the fetus, through maternal stress, to adjust its development to circumstances it will encounter in extrauterine life.
Effects of personal responsibility and latitude for type a and b individuals on psychological and physiological stress responses