Stress can affect anyone, but one gender is more affected than the other, experts say. The explanations are multiple.
Work, family, romantic relationships, stress is part of everyday life and can be caused by a multitude of reasons. When it is really bad, it can cause many side effects, such as headaches or stomach aches, hair loss, sleep problems, even heart rhythm disturbances and high blood pressure. That being said, each person reacts differently to stressful situations, but one of the two sexes experiences it much more than the other.
The difference is also enormous: the number of women suffering from work-related stress was assessed by the Health and Safety Executive as being 50% higher than that of men, at the same age, after a survey of 38,000 households in the United Kingdom. After evaluation over several periods between 2011 and 2015, men aged 35 to 44 had a lower than average rate of work-related stress, while women of the same generation had a significantly higher rate than average.
In this age group, 68,000 women reported suffering from stress compared to 46,000 men. These figures are even higher among those aged 45-54, 78,000 for women, compared to 58,000 for men. This stress is explained by the HSE by tight deadlines and pressure at work. Judith Mohring, British psychiatrist from the Center Priory of London, adds that for women, this is also explained by their increased responsibilities at work, while they retained a major role at home, still carrying out a clear majority of domestic tasks.
“Professionally, the place of women in the world has changed over the last 50 years. We are now achieving everything that men can do. What we may have failed to do is to transfer some more traditional responsibilities from women So, even if we excel at work, we generally also accumulate pressure at home, which can lead to significant stress,” she assures. The specialist also highlights other aspects that cause stress such as “appearance” and “the quality of friendships”.
Another one studypublished in the journal Nature Neurosciencealso gives another biological explanation for the significant stress encountered by women. Scientists have, in fact, identified the nerve cells involved in the onset of negative emotions, including stress: they are found in the area in the middle of the brain, between the habenula and the hypothalamus.
According to the study, these neurons have receptors for estrogen, which are hormones secreted by the ovaries. Being more receptive to estrogen levels, women are more affected and develop a more lasting response to stress. These conclusions were drawn from confronting male and female mice to the same types of events.