Recent studies suggest that males and females may rely on different vascular control mechanisms to maintain systemic blood pressure, but available data on transduction of sympathetic nerve activity (SNA) into vascular responses provide conflicting inferences. For example, tonic resting SNA and systemic vascular resistance are correlated only in males (Hart et al., 2009), yet tonic resting SNA and adrenergic blood pressure support are correlated only in females (Schmitt et al., 2010). To clarify the physiologic bases for this disparity, we explored sex differences in sympathetic transduction. We recorded beat-by-beat blood pressure (Finapres), multi-unit peroneal SNA (microneurography), and popliteal blood flow (Doppler) from 19 young, healthy volunteers (25.7±3.5 years; 9 females) during isometric handgrip exercise to fatigue. We determined gain relation between pressure and flow, assessed SNA as spikes/beat, derived the time-dependent transfer function between SNA and flow, and quantified sympathetic transduction as total area under the transfer function for each individual. Hemodynamic responses to handgrip were not different, though systolic pressure responses were blunted in females (25.9±15.3 vs 48.4±32.4 mm Hg; p=0.08). Our assessment captured the majority of the relationship of flow to pressure and SNA (r2=83±10%). Pressure gain and sympathetic transduction were both larger in females (0.070±0.012 vs 0.053±0.021 cm/s/mm Hg, p=0.05; 0.032±0.021 vs 0.021±0.007 cm/s/spike, p=0.10). Across individuals, resting SNA was not explained by pressure gain but was related to sympathetic transduction (r2=0.19, p=0.03). The latter relation was not simply linear, therefore, we applied a basic curvilinear function (y=a+b/x) and found a significant association between decreasing sympathetic transduction and increasing resting SNA (r2=0.33, p<0.01). These results indicate that sympathetic transduction is higher in young females, and that lower resting SNA is related to larger transduction. This further suggests caution when interpreting correlations between resting variables among a subject group as representative of the regulatory physiology.