# Female sweat different PH from men?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-sweat-different-ph-from-men/472125>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 11, 2008, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-sweat-different-ph-from-men/472125 "2008-11-11T00:07:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Laudenum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Laudenum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laudenum)\
**Post date:** [November 11, 2008, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-sweat-different-ph-from-men/472125/1 "2008-11-11T00:07:09Z")

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Just watching Bones, and from analysing the sweat on a piece of evidence, and finding the PH is 7, they all realise it’s a woman, in an “Oh, of course” way.

Is this true?  
Why is this?

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**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\
**Post date:** [November 11, 2008, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-sweat-different-ph-from-men/472125/2 "2008-11-11T00:47:05Z")

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I had always heard that guy sweat was more acidic than girl sweat. However, these guys disagree (2001):

[Erroneous gender differences in axillary skin surface/sweat pH](http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=959186)

> [@](#):
>
> Studies on the back and infra-mammary regions exhibited significant gender differences in skin surface pH. whereas those on the forehead, cheek, neck and inguinal area showed no such difference. With regard to the axilla[sup]\*[/sup] specifically, four studies have been reported, three showing no significant difference in axillary skin surface pH and one indicating that females have an eccrine sweat pH of 7 and males have a sweat pH of 5.6. This paper describes a series of carefully controlled studies aimed at assessing potential gender differences in eccrine sweat and skin surface pH following exposure to a variety of temperature, humidity and time conditions. The results highlight the importance of controlling precisely the time of investigation, site of measurement and, most importantly, the necessity to pre-equilibrate samples in 40 mmHg carbon dioxide (equivalent to arterial CO2 tension (pCO2)) before determining sweat pH. When these parameters are controlled no gender differences in axillary sweat or skin surface pH are observed.

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[sup]\*[/sup] That’s the armpit.