Over 70% of men would give up a night out to play nursemaid... but women are less likely to

But the nation’s men in fact appear to get very little TLC when they fall ill. A wife’s sympathy for a partner with a cold lasts just five minutes, according to new research. Most wives and girlfriends are happy to admit they are more cold hearted than cold curing. But when it is women who are suffering, men will not only mop their brow but will even take a day off to look after them, the study found. The figures from cold remedy Lemsip Max All In One reverses the traditional image of females nursemaiding malingering husbands or boyfriends through the sniffles. It found 52 per cent of women lose sympathy for their under-the-weather partner after five minutes of moaning. And 18 per cent don’t even last that long, admitting they start off being unsympathetic.

But in the cold war of the sexes, when the shoe’s on the other foot, men see themselves as Florence Nightingales at the first sign of a sneeze. Seventy per cent claim to be sympathetic but many go further, with 60 per cent doing the housework and 64 per cent cooking dinner. Lemsip surveyed 1,300 adults to launch a product it claims works after just five minutes. It found only 19 per cent of women have taken a day off to look after their man while 37 of men have done the same for their wife or girlfriend. Women are also less likely to give up a night out to nursemaid their partner (56 per cent), while 73 per cent of men would.

Perhaps it is the fuss men make when they get the sniffles, but other findings also suggest that women are less than generous about a bed-ridden boyfriend. Almost three in 10 (29 per cent) take one look at him and think “he’s going to be grumpy all day” the survey found, while 28 per cent just think “hurry up and get better”, and one in 10 men claims to have been told not to be a hypochondriac. Men by contrast present themselves as saintlike in comparison with 48 per cent claiming their first thought is “poor thing” when their partner is unwell, although only 13 per cent of women said their partners had looked after them.