‘MAN up, it’s not that cold…’ you may have been told if you are a man who has ever felt a bit chilly.

But as well as just being blatantly sexist, the insinuation that men are actually better at coping with the cold has now been proven to be factually wrong.

Or at least scientists in America think so.

A study of 28 healthy young specimens who were exposed to low temperatures found that coping mechanisms in male participants kicked in at a relatively balmy 23C.

For women, the temperature at which their bodies started to react to deal with the drop in temperatures – known as the lower critical temperature – was a bone-chilling 22C

Researchers from the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, said women were also better at maintaing a higher core temperature in the cold.

They suggested that the fact women have higher levels of body fat might explain why they have better insulation against drops in temperature, the Daily Mail reports.

That goes against previous studies which claim men will feel the cold less because they have more muscle, which is a natural producer of heat.

Writing in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) the National Institutes of Health team said: ‘Conventionally, women are perceived to feel colder than men, but controlled comparisons are scarce.

‘We found that women had a cooler lower critical temperature, resembling an ‘arctic’ shift compared to men.

‘The more arctic profile of women was predominantly driven by higher insulation associated with more body fat compared to men.’

And for anyone who still insists on using the phrase ‘Man up’, there is cold comfort in there being no noticeable difference in shivering between the sexes when exposed to colder conditions during the study.

Heartwarming news for all those sexists out there, we’re sure.