"The stubby Y chromosome contains only a handful of active genes.", Because it lacks recombination & thus mutations gathered overtime = loss of genes. And yet those handful of genes left are necessities that were spared by design by it's gene regulators which is why it's still active.

Those handful of genes are in fact all it needs. It's a condensed, less excessive X Chromosome. And X Chromosome is less cluttered Y Chromosome.

"stubby Y Chromosome", was that descriptor truly necessary to make your point? Or your attempt to lightly jab the Y Chromosome like many MANY researchers do whenever it's size is brought up- then you follow up immediately after--

" It's quite possible to live a full life without a Y chromosome. In fact, more than half of the people on Earth -; women -; lack Y chromosomes and do just fine."

Obviously that goes without saying, I think we all know women can exist without a Y.

That gratuitous pit stop of a statement is so minute compared to the rest of the article yet has a tone of unnecessary compensation. Clearly women are fine without a Y, but another X does cause problems men don't have to deal with, that's the reality.

It's okay to say that.

In a way males not having another X causing such issues is a more balanced model but to an extent, on top of the physical advantages, but only to an extent---

hence why Males don't suffer these problems specifically, but the presence of Y and the absence of X or a recombination peer for Y causes other issues in the males too that women don't have to deal with.

It's a balance, inside and outside the body. Give and take.

It wouldn't then be necessary to say "Men get along just fine without another X, it's possible to live a full live without it" as if trying to prove something to someone or ourselves. When while women suffer Autoimmune attacks, which is unfortunate but that's a side effect of women having above exceptional immune systems as a whole because of the XX combination, men don't have that either, along with the lupus condition.

Two sided coin.

So in isolation, slightly odd rhetoric that seldom adds to the overall argument. But it can be ignored, but it is unnecessary.

If more figures of academic authority stopped throwing cheap jabs at the Y Chromosome and overcompensating whenever a contrast between males and females comes up in this subject as if this is a competition or an indicative statement of women and men themselves which it's NOT. If Experts would stop inserting that foolery, these studies would improve and be a better reading experience without the cringe.

That awkward insertion aside, this was well informed overall as a read. It helped.