BBC News: Women ‘fight off disease better’

So we guys are indeed poor little bunnies, need a lot of care and medicine to get back to full macho power:

Men really do have an excuse for supposedly being wimpy about coughs and colds – their immune systems are not as strong as women’s, research suggests.

A Canadian study indicates that the female sex hormone oestrogen gives women’s immune systems added bite at fighting off infection.

Oestrogen seems to counter an enzyme which blocks the inflammatory process.