A somewhat tongue-in-cheek defence of the concept on 'man- 'flu' (the idea that men suffer more from viral respiratory diseases than female counterparts) has been proposed by Dr Kyle Sue in the British Medical Journal (https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/dec/11/stop-accusing-men-of-overreacting-man-flu-really-does-exist-claims-doctor). The basic argument seems to be that male testosterone levels reduce the immune response and 'man-'flu' is a defensive response to potential predation. I would not dream of countering this defence of my gender directly but I did find with colleague Salem Beden ( Beden, S.N. and Brain, P.F. (1985) The primary immune responses to sheep red blood cells in mice of differing social status or from individual housing IRCS Medical Science 13: 364-365) that dominant mice (with presumably higher titres of testosterone) showed a greater immune response to antigenic challenge than subordinate counterparts. This suggests that there is no simple link between immune responses androgens. Male weediness cannot be ruled out at this stage.
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