This mechanism is actually what makes men more prone to eye bags, she says. While there’s likely nothing wrong with eye bags from a health perspective, it can be a common insecurity for people, so understanding why it happens may bring you some peace of mind—and help you figure out how to prevent it. 

“[Men] tend to lose more bone around their lateral orbital rim,” Goodman says. In turn, this means there’s less support for the tissue there, thus creating larger eye bags.

On the flip side, she says, women tend to lose bone in the mid-face and next to their nose, which is why they may have a longer upper lip with age. According to Goodman, this is “one of the telltale signs of aging that most people don’t even realize.” 

This doesn’t mean women can’t have prominent eye bags and men can’t lose bone density around their nose—however, these patterns do help explain why men and women tend to have different facial aging features.