The volume of blood in females is generally lower than that in males when compared relative to body weight or overall volume. Specifically:
- Blood volume in adult males averages about 70 ml per kg of body weight, whereas in adult females it is about 65 ml per kg
- In absolute terms, an average adult male has approximately 5.5 to 6 liters of blood, while an average adult female has about 4.3 to 4.5 liters
- This difference is largely attributed to males having more lean body mass and females having a higher proportion of adipose (fat) tissue, which contains less blood volume
- When normalized to lean body mass, females tend to have slightly lower blood volume per kg of lean body mass compared to males, though the difference is less pronounced
In summary, females have about 5-10% less blood volume per kilogram of body weight compared to males, resulting in a lower total blood volume overall. This difference reflects underlying physiological and anatomical differences between sexes, including body composition and cardiovascular structure
