Talk:Fever

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Average temperature for females?[edit]

This part of the article seems way out of left field and quite confusing:

"In adults, the normal range of oral temperatures in healthy individuals is ... 33.2–38.1 °C (91.8–100.6 °F) among women,... "

Both in the Human body temperature and Hypothermia articles say that 33.2 C and 91.8 F are within symptomatic hypothermia range.

1. It is true that the reference given, #36, states:

"The range in oral temperature for men and women, respectively, was 35.7-37.7 and 33.2-38.1 degrees C."

However, there is nothing about why female oral temps would be so much lower than male's. Perhaps the journal published a correction?

2. Normal Body Temperature: A Systematic Review
Ivayla I Geneva, Brian Cuzzo, Tasaduq Fazili, Waleed Javaid
Open Forum Infectious Diseases, Volume 6, Issue 4, April 2019,
https://doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofz032
Also: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6456186/

In this survey, authors state:

"The quest for understanding human body temperature and defining normothermia is ongoing, as is evidenced by the steady number of published prospective studies depicted in Figure 1A."

Further:

"Finally, our analysis demonstrated only a trivial difference in body temperature between the genders (Table 2 and Figure 1C), with women’s temperature being slightly lower when using all measurements from all measurement sites."

Note that in Table 2, the very few places where female's lower range temps are given in the 33s, they are axillary or tympanic, not the oral temps that appear in reference #36.

3. Assessment of axillary temperature for the evaluation of normal body temperature of healthy young adults at rest in a thermoneutral environment
Shuri Marui, Ayaka Misawa, Yuki Tanaka, and Kei Nagashima
J Physiol Anthropol. 2017; 36: 18.
Published online 2017 Feb 22. doi: 10.1186/s40101-017-0133-y

This study compared subjects' baseline temps with axillary and tympanic results (with methods). Even the lowest results were not near the values given in this WP article for females.:

"It seems to be accepted that “normal body temperature” is around 37.0 °C on average, although a range around this value (36.2 to 37.5 °C) is considered within normal limits. However, in the present study, the averaged values estimated by axillary temperature measurements using a digital thermometer were lower than the accepted normal value (i.e., 36.2 °C on average). The reason remains unclear."

4. Comparative Study: Oral temperature differences in relation to thermometer and technique
R Erickson
"Nurs Res". 1980 May-Jun;29(3):157-64.

For your information, this article examines the most effective technique for oral temperature-taking.

Thank you for your time, Wordreader (talk) 07:15, 10 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]