Women, Men, and Stress

Do women and men experience and deal with stress differently?  Popular opinions range from the “no differences” proposition to the “different planets altogether” idea.  But what does the current science suggest about how men and women react under stress?  Many studies point toward the idea that our hormones affect our physical and mental experience of stress, and influence how we interact with others when we are under stress.  Here are a few studies that might be of interest.

Research on the hormones of stress are showing differences between men and women in the ability to step into each other’s shoes under stress.  Specifically women in this study showed a better ability to think flexibly about both their feelings and the feelings of another person.  Source: Is stress affecting our ability to tune into others? Evidence for gender differences in the effects of stress on self-other distinction – Psychoneuroendocrinology

Differences in biology between men and women may result in different reactions to stress.  Specifically men may be more likely to fight or flee, and women may be more likely to turn to “tend and befriend” behavior.  This article further cites sources that suggest that high testosterone may inhibit the stress response, and that testosterone at high levels can make people behave less empathetically,  and impair their ability to read faces.    Source: Social cognition under stress: differential effects of stress-induced cortisol elevations in healthy young men and women. – PubMed – NCBI  

Women’s menstrual cycle affects the experience of stress, with women getting more interpersonally stressed out when progesterone is high (and conversely possibly experiencing reduction of interpersonal stress when estrogen levels are higher).  Source: Menstrual cycle modulation of medial temporal activity evoked by negative emotion. – PubMed – NCBI

Men and women have differences in the way they remember and what they remember after and under stress.  (Ever had that common argument about not remembering something, or remembering things that the someone else doesn’t remember?)  Sources: 1)  The relationship between stress induced cortisol levels and memory differs between men and women – Psychoneuroendocrinology,  2) There Is No News Like Bad News: Women Are More Remembering and Stress Reactive after Reading Real Negative News than Men

There is speculation that the hormone and neurotransmitter oxytocin helps us calm ourself, may lower the effects of stress, and may make us more likely to approach people socially.  However the responses to oxytocin look different for men and women in this study. While both sexes report  more approach behavior (being ready to engage with someone else), only women report experiencing more anger.  Since other studies suggest women produce more oxytocin under stress it is interesting to consider whether it may drive both approaching a partner as well as experiencing more frustration. Perhaps this correlates with the Gottman research which suggests that women initiate a much higher percentage of “talks” about problems and are more prone to “harsh start” in conversations.  Source: A heartfelt response: Oxytocin effects on response to social stress in men and women. – PubMed – NCBI