The Cause of the Sexual Differences in Erythrocyte, Hemoglobin and Serum Iron Levels in Human Adults

Studies of Iron Requirements in Infants.* III. Influence of Supplemental Iron during Normal Pregnancy on Mother and Infant A. The Mother

“…A question that logically follows is: does the increase in haemoglobin with therapeutic doses of iron prove that the person was in need of iron? The stules of Vahlquist (1950) indicate that normal non-pregnant women given comparable doses of iron do not achieve any change in haemoglobin or serum-iron concentration. Compared with non-pregnant normal women, therefore, the increases following iron supplements suggest at least a relative deficiency.…”

Sex moderates the relationship between aortic stiffness, cognition and cerebrovascular reactivity in healthy older adults

“…Our findings suggest that HCT may be in part driving these sex differences. Interestingly, it has previously been shown that males and females have different levels of hemoglobin which affect MR measures of flow (Kimberly et al 2013 ;Yip et al 1984;Vahlquist and Others 1950;Garn et al 1975 ) . Since PWV, a surrogate marker for stiffness, is dependent on the differences in pressure which in turn is dependent on radius of vessels and blood viscosity, it is plausible that our results partly reflect a blood viscosity effect (Stojadinović et al 2015;Painter 2008) .…”

“…For example, recent work suggests that hemodynamic measures, such as PWV, may be affected by differences in the concentration of HCT. Males and females typically have different HCT levels (Yip et al 1984;Vahlquist and Others 1950;Garn et al 1975) , and whole blood viscosity (hematocrit and plasma viscosity) has been shown to be positively correlated with certain cardiovascular disease factors and measures of vascular function (Parkhurst et al 2012;Bonithon-Kopp et al 1993;Levenson et al 1987) . Thus, this raises the possibility that a portion of the sex effects observed in the literature could be mediated, in part, by differences in HGB levels.…”

Hemoglobin Levels in Old Age

“…Lapicque (20) has reported that the concentration of iron in the liver of women is considerably less than it is in men, and that the difference appears at about the age of 15. There are several reports that the level of plasma iron is lower in women than in men (21)(22)(23)(24).…”