Women’s Problem Drinking Is Catching Up to Men’s

Introduction

Women are closing a gender gap, but it isn’t a good one: They’re catching up to men when it comes to problem drinking.

Rise of Women’s Drinking

Women’s drinking has been on the rise for the past two decades, and it jumped during the pandemic as women reported more stress. Although men still drink more alcohol than women and have higher alcohol-related mortality rates, doctors and public health experts say women are narrowing that divide.

• Alcohol-related emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and deaths are increasing faster for women than for men.
• Studies suggest that women are more susceptible to alcohol-related liver inflammation, heart disease, and certain cancers.

Trends in Problem Drinking

Over the past couple of decades, problem drinking has risen most among 30- and 40-something women. Rates of drinking among teen girls have been declining, but go up once women hit their 20s.

Binge drinking among women has gradually lost its social stigma over several generations to the point where it is almost a rite of passage in college. In recent years, a growing culture of mom drinking escalated during the pandemic, as some mothers juggling remote school and work drank more to cope with stress, and the habit stuck, doctors say.

Guidelines and Warning Signs

How much drinking is too much is a popular topic of discussion among both men and women, with an emergent “sober curious” movement and more open conversations about abstaining from alcohol. Federal dietary guidelines recommend that women consume one drink or less a day, or not drink at all. Signs of problem drinking include consuming for longer or taking in more than you intended, struggling to scale back or abstain from alcohol, experiencing cravings or symptoms of withdrawal, getting sick or hungover frequently, and noticing that drinking interferes with your daily family life or job.

Pandemic Drinking

The Covid pandemic accelerated years of rising alcohol use among women. During pandemic lockdowns in 2020, the number of days that women reported drinking to excess—four or more drinks in a few hours—increased significantly, by 41% compared with the same period a year prior. A follow-up study by the same researchers examined alcohol consumption between May 2020 and March 2021 and found that men reported drinking less over the period while drinking levels remained stable for women.

Alcohol-related deaths are rising faster among women than men.

Biological Differences

Drinking affects women’s bodies differently than it does men’s. Women tend to store more body fat than men, which means women’s bodies feel the effects of alcohol more quickly. Women also have higher levels of estrogen than men do, and the hormone affects the liver in a way that makes its cells and tissue more vulnerable to damage from alcohol.

Less Attention from Doctors

Doctors tend to be better at and more accustomed to detecting drinking problems in men than in women, so some of women’s issues go unnoticed. A study found that doctors were less likely to have a conversation with women who had problem levels of drinking than men. Doctors were particularly less likely to intervene with middle-aged women compared with same-age men.