However, efforts devoted to improving health care access and quality will yield limited gains so long as stress and social stigmatization among minority populations persist, and profound differences in neighborhood conditions and available opportunities remain. These are the fundamental causes that need to be addressed to truly eliminate alcohol-related and general health disparities. Together, this varied literature suggests that social and biological factors may contribute to alcohol-related disparities among women in several ways.
I’m a mom who drank every day amid the pandemic. Here’s what women need to know.
These factors may increase exposure to high levels of stress and discrimination (and drinking in response), they may increase sensitivity to the physiological effects of alcohol, and they may increase exposure to punitive societal responses to an individual’s own alcohol use. Social position and sociocultural context also affect the likelihood of experiencing alcohol problems, particularly negative social consequences, at a given level of consumption. Potential sex differences in brain structural recovery with abstinence require further investigation. They’re at greater risk for hangovers, blackouts, liver disease, alcohol-induced cardiovascular diseases and certain cancers.
Social stigmas are starting to fade
The WFS New Life Program is inclusive of all women, regardless of financial resources, race, religion, abilities, and backgrounds. Women have lower amounts of the enzyme, alcohol dehydrogenase, needed to break their drinks down, so they are left with higher levels of a substance that is toxic to organs like the liver. Moreover, women have less body water to dilute the alcohol they’ve consumed — the end result is that alcohol in their systems becomes more concentrated, Karaye said. Women are more likely than men to suffer from mood, anxiety, and eating disorders that may benefit from being treated at the same time as the substance abuse disorder. However, few substance abuse treatment programs provide adequate treatment of psychiatric disorders.
- As shown in Table 1, most of the significant racial/ethnic differences in DSM-IV alcohol dependence prevalence were no longer apparent when abstainers were excluded.
- Although the prevalence of drinking remains higher in men than women, the gender gap is narrowing.
- One study found alcohol-related visits to the emergency room from 2006 to 2014 increased 70% for women, compared with 58% for men.
- That means the same number of drinks leads them to have higher concentrations of alcohol in the blood, and their body tissues are exposed to more alcohol per drink.
- The investigation, published by JAMA’s Substance Use and Addiction on July 28, examined 605,948 alcohol-related deaths from 1999 to 2020, which didn’t include deaths from injuries, homicides or death indirectly linked to alcohol use.
Socioeconomic status
If you or someone you love struggle with alcohol misuse or addiction, call American Addiction Centers (AAC) at to speak to one of our compassionate and knowledgeable admissions navigators, who can answer your questions, explain your options, and help you get started on your journey to recovery. Unfortunately, women are prone to several conditions that may tempt them to overindulge in alcohol. 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. In “The Endocrine System and Alcohol Drinking in Females,” Finn extends this neurobiological review by examining the multidirectional interactions of alcohol, stress, and key gonadal sex steroid hormones and stress steroid hormones.10 Findings suggest promising directions for development of novel pharmacological treatments for alcohol use disorder (AUD). I think it shows that people are becoming more aware of the risks of alcohol intake but still looking to enjoy some of the things that go along with alcoholic beverages — taste, texture, and so on.
Physical differences in drinking
When it comes to alcohol, as is the case with many things in life, practicing moderation is key. The NIAAA’s Rethinking Drinking hub offers great resources for questions about drinking patterns, how much is too much, and how to recognize signs of a drinking problem. The Hormone Connection Dr. Grant is taking a closer look at the role female reproductive hormones (specifically, progesterone) play in alcohol consumption and alcohol sensitivity. Her research suggests that women’s menstrual cycles (and fluctuating hormones) may have a lot to do with when we choose to drink and how much we drink. Cooper says enrolling in a 90-day residential treatment program in 2018 drastically changed her own perception of who is affected by addiction. She found herself surrounded by other women in their 20s who also struggled with alcohol and other drugs.
Your Health
- Dr. Grant says, „Yes, for some people, low doses of alcohol can increase attentiveness and activity and may reduce the risk of developing heart disease. „But, that doesn’t mean these health benefits outweigh the risk of developing an alcohol use disorder if someone engages regularly in heavy drinking, particularly in younger adults.“
- Only 20% of women in the sample agreed to the statement that addiction is completely within a person’s control, yet 55% said they would feel embarrassed or ashamed if they had a drinking problem.
- Heavy drinking can lead to increased risk of health problems such as liver disease, brain damage, and breast cancer.
- Social position and sociocultural context also affect the likelihood of experiencing alcohol problems, particularly negative social consequences, at a given level of consumption.
- Because these studies were based on older data that, in some cases, were collected nearly 20 years ago, data from the 2017 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH)15 were analyzed to provide updated national estimates for women.
- Risks vs. Benefits Women who drink heavily (five or more drinks on the same occasion on five or more days per month) are more likely than men to develop liver disease (including hepatitis and cirrhosis) and to suffer from alcohol-induced brain damage.
Some experts believe that women who drink even one alcoholic drink per day may be putting themselves at increased risk for health problems. Women who drink more than light to moderate amounts of alcohol (more than about 7 drinks a week) are at increased risk of car accidents and other traumatic injuries, cancer, hypertension, stroke, and suicide. In addition, drinking at an elevated rate increases the likelihood that a woman will go on to abuse or become dependent on alcohol.
Drinking during pregnancy–Never a good idea
If you suspect that you or someone you know may have a drinking problem, consult with a health care provider. There are several warning signs of binge or excessive drinking, which in women, means having more than four drinks in one sitting and in men, having more than five drinks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 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. To better understand why women are more vulnerable to the risks of alcohol we spoke to Kathleen Grant, Ph.D., a senior scientist and head of the Division of Neuroscience at the Oregon National Primate Research Center. Dr. Grant has spent over thirty years researching the risks and benefits of alcohol consumption. In 2019, she returned to UNC-Chapel Hill and finished her degree in women’s and gender studies, even completing a capstone project on the links among sexual violence, trauma and addiction.
Although this review focuses on sexual minority women, the newly emerging literature on alcohol use among gender minority women (i.e., noncisgender and nonbinary women) should be noted. A systematic review of transgender individuals (including gender minority women) by Gilbert and colleagues found estimates of binge drinking among transgender individuals ranging from 7% to 65%, with estimates of lifetime and past-year DSM-IV AUD prevalence at 26% and 11%, respectively.29 More research is needed on these groups. As noted by Gilbert and colleagues, to facilitate research on alcohol use disparities among gender minority women and transgender individuals, new methods will be needed, as many of the current alcohol use measures to assess unsafe drinking rely on physiological sex-specific cut points.
- The few neuroimaging studies considering differences between men and women on alcohol-related brain structural changes have generated conflicting results.
- Contradictory findings on sex differences have been reported in studies that assessed decoding of emotional facial expressions (EFE) in AUD.
- Yet when it comes to prevention and treatment of alcohol-related health issues, „that message is not really getting out there,“ Sugarman says.
- Taken together, these studies demonstrate the relation between chronic heavy drinking and structural and functional brain abnormalities in men and women; however, due to their cross-sectional nature, these studies cannot determine whether AUD-related brain dysmorphology was caused by drinking, was pre-existing, or both.
- Thus, it is not clear whether these findings (especially those based on data collected from the early 2000s) accurately reflect DSM-5 AUD patterns among women, as the latter have not yet been examined.
These may be more helpful than mixed-gender programs for some women, such as those who have suffered sexual or physical women and alcoholism abuse. Any kind of alcohol in any amount can harm a developing fetus, especially during the first and second trimester. Physicians and public health officials recommend that women avoid drinking any alcohol during pregnancy. Plus, women have a “telescoping,” or accelerated, course of alcohol dependence, meaning that they generally advance from their first drink to their first alcohol-related problem to the need for treatment more quickly than men. Because women become addicted to alcohol more easily than men, drinking even moderately can be a slippery slope.