Good stress, bad stress, and female stress

Men and women may be created equal, but they are certainly not identical—particularly when it comes to stress. Research continues to uncover fascinating differences between most males and females, some of which are good news for women and their relationship to stress.

For example, females seem to survive birth stress better than males. Although 105 males are born for every 100 females, by the end of one year there is already a reversal in the male/female ratio. Not only is the early female mortality rate lower than the male rate, but females usually live longer as well. U.S. Census Bureau reports show that there are only 68 men for every 100 women over sixty-five years of age. By eighty or more years of age, women make up 2.6 percent of the population, and men only 1.5 percent.

Women also seem to grow older more gracefully. They tend to retain use of their legs and hands longer, show less gray hair, fewer sight and hearing deficits, and less memory loss, and maintain greater circulation of blood to the brain.

Karl Pribram, at the University of California at Santa Cruz, is studying the differences between female and male brains. He has found evidence that suggests some more good news—females demonstrate more left-brain-hemisphere dominance than males. The left hemisphere seems to be in charge of language, logic, and labels, and so girls begin to talk earlier and find school subjects such as English and literature easier than boys do. They may also handle stress more logically and verbally than will boys.

Furthermore, Pribram suggests, the band of nerve fibers that connects the two hemispheres of the brain is thicker in most females. This would give females a greater use of both hemispheres than males. That is, females seem to combine the right-brain visual spatial abilities with the left-brain verbal skills in a coordinated way, instead of favoring one hemisphere. (Could this be a scientific explanation of female intuition?)

Since women typically have a greater fat-to-muscle ratio than men, they have better protection from the cold, better buoyancy in water, and a slower release of energy supply. This is a boon to women who are long-distance runners or long-distance swimmers. It also helps women cope with long-term stress, since stress tends to constrict the surface blood vessels that keep our hands and feet warm; stress tends to increase sweating, which chills us; and stress tends to suppress appetite, which makes it necessary to have an alternate source of energy.

From Eleanor Maccoby at Stanford University comes the news that females probably react to touch more easily than males. Might this mean that females get more pleasure from being stroked and caressed than males? Perhaps. Might this mean that females' stress can be soothed more easily by holding, hugging, and touching? Probably!

Some studies show that females are more sensitive to pain than males, other studies show no difference—but no studies show males to be more sensitive to pain. How is this good news? Although a low pain threshold may lead to an overconcern with body ailments, it can also provide an early warning system for stress symptoms that require early intervention. This sex difference may even contribute to longer life expectancies for women than for men.

Research also shows a male-female difference in aggression control. After eighteen months of age, girls seem to gain better control over their tempers than boys (E. Maccoby and C. Jacklin). This is another reason that females could be expected to evolve better verbal stress-coping strategies than less-controlled males. They would assess information more efficiently and address problems more logically. An alternate hypothesis is that females may show less of a tendency to react to situations aggressively and, therefore, need less control. This too would enhance their coping capacity—they would think first, act later.

One area of female superiority certainly seems underutilized: the female's fine-muscle coordination. Although this would suit women for occupations such as brain surgery and fine art, in this society it more often results in a woman doing needlepoint to reduce tension!

Now for the bad news concerning women in relation to stress. Because of their unique physiology and conditioning, women under long-term stress are in a position of double jeopardy: they are at risk for all the usual stress symptoms, from ulcers to hypertension to chronic fatigue, and they are also at risk for such additional stress-mediated disorders as infertility, premenstrual tension, and anxiety neurosis—a full list of symptoms that are either unique to women or are more frequently reported by women than men. Before detailing these specific female stress symptoms, though, let's first take a look at the general subject of stress and the ways in which the body reacts to it.

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