But, according to a study, the fairer sex should not be so quick to accuse their partners of suffering from “man flu”, because women are far better at resisting bugs.
Australian researchers found that female volunteers had a “much stronger immune response” to rhinoviruses — the bugs that usually cause the common cold — than men.
The protection vanished after the menopause, suggesting it was regulated by female sex hormones. This would help explain why men are much more likely to fall ill when they get infected.
Prof John Upham, of the University of Queensland, said: “It makes sense from a biological point of view because women are more likely to ensure the survival of the species.”
The findings should come as some comfort to those men who feel falsely accused of having a bout of "man 'flu" when they are, in fact, suffering for real.
Prof Upham added: "We noticed that when women reached menopause, their improved resistance to rhinoviruses faded away. So hormones obviously play a huge part in helping fight viruses."
The team, from the University of Queensland, published their findings after lab tests to examine the immune responses of 63 healthy volunteers.
In a report for the journal Respiratory Research, they concluded, "This study suggests that pre-menopausal women have a stronger adaptive immune response to rhinovirus infection than men and older people, though the mechanisms responsible for these differences remain to be determined.
"Our findings highlight the importance of gender and age balance in clinical studies and in the development of new treatments and vaccines."
Professor Upham admitted that while the team "definitely haven't been able to find a cure for man-flu", they had made a "crucially important" discovery in the fight against the common cold.
He said, "While these viruses are just a nuisance in healthy people, they can make people with asthma or other chronic lung diseases very unwell. In our efforts to find new ways to prevent these infections, we need to take into account the account the effects of hormones, and how they affect the immune system."