According to mortality data from 35 countries during the hot summer of 2022 in Europe, one study found 56 percent more heat-related deaths among women than among men.
This summer isn't over yet, and according to data from the Robert Koch Institute, Germany has seen its deadliest heat season since 2016 by mid-July – with nearly 9.800 heat-related deaths. And among them there are more women than men.
The Robert Koch Institute attributes the higher number of deaths among women to the fact that women make up a larger proportion of the oldest age groups.
Do hormones make hot flashes more dangerous for women?
However, the media emphasizes the hormonal interpretation - women's bodies are simply not equipped for heat - they sweat less, have more body fat, and progesterone raises the basal body temperature.
Scientists who study the effects of heat on the human body say this is largely untrue.
"Overall, studies tend to show only slightly higher sensitivity to heat in women compared to men. It's actually not a particularly strong indicator," says Alexandra Schneider of the Helmholtz Institute in Munich.
Small differences exist: women have a lower sweating rate, a smaller skin surface in relation to their body size, and the distribution of fat that affects thermoregulation. Hormones also play a role, but unevenly throughout life.
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Schneider points to one specific group: postmenopausal women, when cardiovascular risk increases. Older women with existing heart disease, she says, are probably at the greatest risk of all.
But even in those cases, she doesn't think biology is the main cause of many of the heat wave deaths.
"The living conditions and social environment in which women live probably pose an even greater risk than differences in hormonal status alone."
What about pregnant women?
Toby Mindell, a professor at Brock University in Canada who studies extreme environments for the human body, says that the impact of biology is "overblown." The factors that most determine how a person copes with a heat wave, according to Mindell, are age, body size, fitness and usual physical activity, not biological sex.
Sweating is one example. Although women sweat less, this does not make them more vulnerable because they compensate in other ways.
"They send blood flow to the skin, or trigger vasodilation, much better than men," Mindel explains, meaning their blood vessels dilate more efficiently, transferring heat to the surface where it can evaporate.
Pregnancy, which many assume must be dangerous, is another example. "As a woman progresses through pregnancy, her body actually gets better at handling heat," says Mindel.
He draws a clear line between physiology and circumstance: there are good reasons for pregnant women not to do heavy physical work outdoors during extreme heat. But their bodies are not the reason for that.
If the difference is not physiological, where does it come from?
Laurie Parsons, a researcher at Royal Holloway College, University of London, studies how heat stress moves through the global economy – in construction, clothing factories, agriculture, transport and street vending.
In all these areas, he says, women spend 30 to 50 percent more of their working time above the heat stress threshold than men. In construction, when comparing men and women performing the same job, that figure rises to around 50 percent. In countries like India, Bangladesh or Cambodia, women make up a huge part of the manual workforce in construction. They usually do the hardest, most basic jobs: mixing mortar, carrying heavy sacks of cement, and carrying bricks on their heads in the worst of the sun.
According to him, the reasons are of a structural nature. Women often wear more than one outfit for the same job. Men are more confident in themselves when they ask for breaks. Where men's work is visibly strenuous, it is recognized as a heat risk and rewarded with rest. On the other hand, women's work is more uniform, less obviously exhausting, and for him there is no such relief.
Parsons likens it to the difference between a plane crash and exposure to asbestos: one is a sudden, visible disaster, and the other is a slow, ongoing damage that's easy to overlook.
"Heat stress in men tends to be that more noticeable risk, where you have relatively visible, manageable moments of physical exertion," he says. "Heat stress in women is constantly present, but much less visible, because it doesn't have the same obvious peaks during the workday."
And when the shift is over, he adds, the men rest, while the women cook, clean and take care of the children.
The heat also reduces earnings. Parsons says heat-stressed workers are about 30 percent less productive in the garment manufacturing sector, which he says is the easiest to quantify.
In formal jobs, workers compensate by working longer hours during the hottest part of the day, fueling what he calls a "vicious cycle" of deteriorating health and declining productivity. The self-employed have no such protection. For them, heat stress simply means less income, which over time affects the whole family.
For Parsons, the initial assumption is wrong. "Heat stress is not an atmospheric condition," he concludes. "It is a social condition that occurs under certain atmospheric circumstances."
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Photo: Sunrise/PixabayOne study found 56 percent more heat-related deaths among women than among men.
