When the symptoms hit, it's like being in a bad commercial for cold medication. Aching body, fatigue, cough, congestion, stomach pain, all signs of the dreaded flu and this year, it's slamming into people with a vengeance.

Anyone who's ever been hit by a stomach bug or the flu will tell you that there's nothing pleasant about it, but for men, the symptoms might actually be worse than imagined and it also might take men quite a bit longer than it takes women to get well.

Since the beginning of time, people have joked about "man flu" and how men are such big babies when sick, moaning and groaning and milking it for all its worth. As it turns out, maybe men aren't such big babies.  However, maybe they really are feeling sick- more sick than imagined.

According to The Guardian, researchers in Newfoundland have made a claim that the "man flu" is a very real thing and that men really do suffer more than women when they get sick.

According to the study published in the British Medical Journal, researchers believe that men aren't just being big babies and exaggerating when they're faced with sickness. It appears that testosterone levels in men wreak havoc on their bodies when they're sick, messing with their immune systems.

When sick, a man's immune system is suppressed and it takes their bodies much longer to fight back against the illness plaguing them and that leads to them feeling even worse.

More From KISS 104.1