Thumbs down to the wretched Man Flu - for everyone suffering with colds and
sniffles this week, get stuck into those cold remedies!
The
sniffle led to more
sniffles, a few coughs and even more splurts and a long-running woe-is-me scenario.
Level 4: Serious
sniffles - he's not too ashamed to ask for extra soft balm tissues.
Men have been laughed at for decades for moaning that the slightest
sniffle is a near-death experience.
And remember - the dole queue is full of people who would gladly drag themselves in to do your job,
sniffle or no
sniffle.
Keeping life's ironies in mind, it is no surprise that adult men - incapable of looking after themselves and the worst patients imaginable - are genetically more likely to catch a cold than women, who don't react to a
sniffle like they are the first British victim of Avian Flu.
Men's attention receptors make them take the merest
sniffle and use it to attract sympathy and cosseting.
That's the claim by experts at Cambridge University, who say men treat a simple
sniffle like a severe case of pneumonia because their hormones work differently to those of their wives and girlfriends.
She doesn't have much to do besides
sniffle but it's first-rate sniffling.
Men are more likely to head to the GP for advice at the first sign of a
sniffle - 74 per cent as opposed to 70 per cent of women.
"Maybe," he adds wickedly, "they could sit in a glassfronted room that they have in some places for nursing mothers and they could cough and
sniffle and bark." Aaahhh, maybe in an ideal world.
Despite suffering from a hoarse throat and a bit of a
sniffle, Charlie is well on the road to recovery after his ordeal.
Men are pilloried for taking to their beds at the slightest
sniffle, which is likely to develop into that lifethreatening ailment sometimes known as "man flu".
These days, as we
sniffle and sneeze, we tend to stock up with all the latest cold and flu remedies.
NEXT time your man takes to bed with a
sniffle, be more sympathetic, ladies.
