How is Anxiety Affected by Gender?

How Is Anxiety Affected by Gender?
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How Is Anxiety Affected by Gender?
Although some people tend to find it easy to get through life’s social sphere, there are those that struggle with feelings of worry, fear, and uncertainty. Usually, the attitudes of people with anxiety tend to change as their circumstances change. However, for some, the cloud of anxiety still looms heavy. Worldwide, approximately 264 million people suffer from anxiety (Kuehner, 2017). Women are more likely to show symptoms of anxiety than men. Among individuals with anxiety, the experience and response differ. However, the medical community does not fully understand why anxiety occurs at different rates and why it affects men and women differently. In this paper, the author explores various anxiety disorders to show how they differ with gender.
Anxiety can be best explained through neurobiology. Physiologically, men and women are very similar. The only difference lies in the time and pace at which they produce and secrete certain hormones (Marques et al., 2016). Both males and females remain undifferentiated until the sixth week in the gestation period. This is the period when males begin producing androgens. In females, the process of sexual differentiation occurs from the twelfth week when there is a substantial increase in follicle stimulating hormones (FSH). After the twentieth week, sexual differentiation stops. The hormonal environment in the brain of males and females remains similar until puberty (Marques et al., 2016).
Estrogen is crucial for the healthy functioning of the brain (Marques et al., 2016). Its exhaustion contributes greatly to pathological anxiety. Rat models have been used to show how reduced estrogen levels affect the brain. In these models, scientists have found that reduced estrogen levels lead to increased anxiety. Hormonal differences have also been found to play a role in stress. For instance, females often show high hypothalamic pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis markers when stressed or resting. Despite the important role hormones play in sexual dimorphism, genetic factors tend to trigger differences in behavior (Marques et al., 2016). The environment also has an impact on behavior.
Adult hippocampal neurogenesis (AHN) helps to show how anxiety differs in males and females from their birth (Marques et al., 2016). AHN is a process involving the continuous formation of neurons in one’s brain. AHN influences mental health behaviors including anxiety. The hippocampus is a region of the brain that responds strongly to stressful situations. Neurogenesis, on the other hand, has been associated with the development of pathological anxiety (Marques et al., 2016).
Chronic stress reduces hippocampal neurogenesis. This inhibits the main function of the hippocampus, which is to temper stress (Marques et al., 2016). Differences in males and females in terms of AHN result from the physiology of women that allows them to get pregnant or lactate. This unique female physiology makes women undergo hormonal changes throughout their lives. Also, it is important to note that the hormonal fluctuations women experience during their unique biological processes change their brain and behavior (Marques et al., 2016).
Gonadal hormones affect hippocampal neurogenesis. For instance, the luteinizing hormone (LH) affects neurogenesis in females (Marques et al., 2016). Studies have shown that substantial increase in LH or exposure to male pheromones increases the proliferation of new neurons. Induced sexual experiences also tend to increase neurogenesis thereby reducing anxiety in females. Although other gonadal hormones such as progesterone and LH lead to improved AHN, estrogen has been found to have the greatest impact. Estrogen regulates brain-derived neurotrophic factors (BDNF), which in turn promotes the retention of new neurons (Marques et al., 2016).
Contemporary research has shown that there are sex differences in regions of the brain involved in memory, cognition, and affect (Christiansen, 2015). In spite of the extensive research on sex differences, most of it has focused on males. Less than 2% of research has focused on females. Yet, even with so little research on females, a lot has been uncovered regarding functional and structural sex differences of the brain related to anxiety. For instance, there are significant differences that have been reported between men and women with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Also, pulse and blood pressure have been found to affect anxiety in females more than they do in males (Christiansen, 2015). Due to such differences, women appear to be much more conditioned than men.
The sex differences that exist in externalizing and internalizing disorders have been found to be responsible for the differences in the sociological aspects of femininity and masculinity (Christiansen, 2015). These two pre-established gender roles tend to contribute to differences in anxiety based on gender. For instance, gender differences in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are small or non-existent in male-dominated professions where females tend to assume more masculine roles (Christiansen, 2015). Although masculinity and femininity used to be considered as dependent on one another, today, they are believed to exist independently from each other. When measured on a single scale, masculinity/femininity has been found to have a negative correlation with anxiety. Hence, men and women who exhibit higher femininity scores tend to experience more anxiety (Christiansen, 2015).
When examined separately, femininity has been found to be less associated with agoraphobia (AG) (Christiansen, 2015). But masculinity has a negative relation to AG severity, social anxiety, trait anxiety, and avoidance. Also, the masculinity scores in males and females with AG were found to be lower than in general samples. Masculinity acts as a protective function in both males and females. It has been identified in adults and children who suffer from different anxiety disorders. In one study, the findings showed that sex was no longer a factor of avoidance among individuals with AG (Christiansen, 2015). These findings suggested that low levels of masculinity in females as opposed to males play a part in anxiety differing by gender. As opposed to masculinity, however, stress due to masculine gender roles has been found to lead to OCD and increased fears of AG and other social situations (Christiansen, 2015).
Gender roles tend to affect sex differences in anxiety in different ways. When identifies with a masculine gender role, they tend to underreport symptoms of anxiety (Christiansen, 2015). The result is a reporting bias. For instance, the underreporting of anxiety among males was found in a study that showed an increa...