Who has the softer heart?

Who has the softer heart?

Dr. Doris Taylor of the Texas Heart Institute didn't tell Lesley Stahl which heart was male and which was female.

Reluctantly, Stahl picked them up and tried to feel the difference through her surgical gloves. One was soft and squishy; the other one, tough and seemingly stronger.

60 Minutes helps pave way for change at NIH, FDA

As you'll see in the above video, the soft heart belongs to the male and the tough one to the female. All jokes aside, Taylor explained to Stahl that the underlying framework of male hearts and female hearts (pigs, in this case) has recently been found to be quite different.

"Turns out, it's true for every organ-- kidney, liver, heart," says Taylor.

This is one small demonstration from this week's 60 Minutes story on the growing body of evidence that men and women are medically different in more significant ways than was previously thought. And these differences, according to the 60 Minutes team's reporting, have been dangerously understudied.

Watch the above video to hear a discussion with Stahl and producer Shari Finkelstein.

Editor's Note: This segment was originally published Feb. 9, 2014.

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