Women and Alcohol National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism NIAAA

Women can suffer from a number of unique alcohol-related health risks that do not impact their male counterparts and are more susceptible to several that men do experience. Millions of readers rely on HelpGuide.org for free, evidence-based resources to understand and navigate mental health challenges. Please donate today to help us save, support, and change lives. These biological factors explain why women become intoxicated after drinking less and are more likely to suffer adverse consequences after drinking smaller quantities and for fewer years than men. Women are more likely than men to suffer alcohol-induced brain damage, such as loss of mental function and reduced brain size. Women are more likely to contract alcoholic liver disease, such as hepatitis (an inflammation of the liver), and are more likely to die from liver cirrhosis (a chronic disease that progressively destroys the liver’s ability to aid in digestion and detoxification).

Gender Differences in the Epidemiology of Alcohol Use and Related Harms in the United States

Sign up to get tips for living a healthy lifestyle, with ways to fight inflammation and improve cognitive health, plus the latest advances in preventative medicine, diet and exercise, pain relief, blood pressure and cholesterol management, and more. Oregon Health & Science University is dedicated to improving the health and quality of life for all Oregonians through excellence, innovation and leadership in health care, education and research. It’s not a definite diagnosis, but it can help you figure out whether you or someone you love has an addiction to alcohol. If you notice a loved one struggling with a drinking problem, consider staging an intervention to halt this destructive cycle. They may not menstruate anymore or may fall into early menopause.

• If a woman in your life drinks excessively, this is likely a sign that she has built up her alcohol tolerance.
• 71 percent of white women become heavy drinkers at some point in their lives, along with 47 percent of black women, 47 percent of Hispanic women, and 37 percent of Asian women.
• Alcohol abuse in a woman is defined as consuming more than the recommended amount on a regular basis or drinking in ways that lead to physical and/or emotional consequences.
• Women from certain ethnicities are more likely to indulge in heavy drinking than others.
• However, a steeper increase was observed for females (136% in numbers, 85% in age-adjusted rates) than for males (93% in numbers and 39% in rates).

Center for Women’s Health

Emotion decoding skills are crucial when assessing one’s immediate social environment, providing valuable information regarding others’ internal affective state, enabling behavioral adaptation according to others’ thoughts and intentions, and facilitating social interactions in daily life. Contradictory findings on sex differences have been reported in studies that assessed decoding of emotional facial expressions (EFE) in AUD. In general, for both men and women, chronic drinking carries with it an increased risk of long-term detrimental health effects.

Booze and the female liver

There are plenty of other ways to safeguard your health, such as regular exercise, a nutritious diet, keeping your weight under women and alcoholism control, and not smoking. But for women who enjoy alcoholic beverages, it’s important to know where to draw the line, and to be prepared to redraw it as you get older. For women in particular, there is a very fine line between healthful and harmful drinking—one that is easy to cross.

Underage Drinking and Teen Alcohol Use

Also, women have less alcohol dehydrogenase, an enzyme that breaks down alcohol before it reaches the bloodstream. At any given dose, our blood levels of alcohol will be higher than a man’s, even taking into account differences in body weight. As a result, one drink for a woman is roughly equivalent to two drinks for a man. Understanding how alcohol affects women may help them seek out support and limit alcohol misuse before it becomes a bigger issue. Many alcohol rehabs and recovery programs focus on helping women stop drinking while also working through issues related to alcohol misuse like trauma, depression, or sexual abuse.

Men were more likely to report harm because of a stranger’s drinking. Additional research on secondhand harms from alcohol use could be helpful for elucidating gender differences in the risk for alcohol-related consequences. An examination of data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey suggests that from 2015 to 2017, 12% of pregnant women drank alcohol and 4% engaged in binge drinking in the previous month.41 The average frequency of binge drinking was five times per month and the average number of drinks per binge was six. These authors reiterated the importance of controlling for variables such as age, education, income, depressive symptoms, and smoking status in studies examining sex-related cognitive differences in relation to alcohol.

• However, research suggests that this gender gap in alcohol use may be narrowing (Grant et al, 2017; Keyes et al, 2011; Slade et al, 2016).
• When it comes to alcohol, as is the case with many things in life, practicing moderation is key.
• While men are more likely to drink alcohol than women, and to develop problems because of their drinking, women are much more vulnerable to alcohol’s harmful effects.

Social stigmas are starting to fade

For starters, women are more likely to be depressed and anxious than men — and are also more commonly victims of sexual violence — and drinking can be one way that women cope with these experiences. Women are catching up to men when it comes to alcohol consumption –and according to most experts, this isn’t a gender gap we want to close. Additionally, you should take care of yourself during this difficult time. Seeking support from friends, family, or a therapist can help you cope with the stress and emotions that come with supporting someone struggling with addiction. Remember to prioritize your own well-being while also being there for your loved one. Women who drink excessively can witness negative changes to their appearance.

Additionally, changing social mores are making it more acceptable, and in many cases actively encouraging, women of all ages to drink. The combination of more women drinking and women drinkers being more impacted by alcohol has created a health epidemic of women and alcoholism that is impacting millions of American families. Research shows that alcohol use and misuse among women are increasing.

Someone who is addicted to alcohol will continue to drink even if everything else in their life goes wrong. This is why they need professional help to get them moving toward a healthier, sober lifestyle. The scans also show that they often struggle with decision-making and higher-order executive cognition functions. They don’t have as much control over these regions of their brain. They’re not going to delay their decision for a larger prize at a later date.