How Does Alcoholism Effect Women?

Women drinkers can face many health risks that men may not necessarily face. Women drinkers are more likely to face brain damage, heart disease, and liver disease as a direct result of the alcohol they consume. Statistics show that women are twice as likely as men to die from alcohol-related causes such as accidents, diseases and suicide then men who drink.

Women who drink are also at risk for menstrual problems and infertility issues. They can also experience early menopause. Women who drink in the teen years can experience problems associated with puberty, growth problems, and poor bone health. When a woman drinks heavily she is more vulnerable to sexual assault, and violence as well as to have unprotected sex with makes her vulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies.

The chemical makeup of her body is very different from the male body because her body has more fat and less water; alcohol that she consumes is less diluted and becomes more highly concentrated in her blood. Women also do not process alcohol in the stomach as well as males do which means more alcohol reaches her bloodstream causing her to become intoxicated faster then males. Researchers have also discovered that women while menstruated can become intoxicated more easily.

Women are told not to drink when pregnant or nursing for good reason. Alcohol is a drug, a teratogen to be exact which is a substance that can harm a fetus during pregnancy because it can cross the placental barrier and enter the bloodstream of the fetus. The alcohol content of the fetus’s blood can actually exceed that of the mom’s. If a woman drinks alcohol it can harm her fetus at anytime during the pregnancy even early in the pregnancy before she even knows that she is pregnant which is why women who are trying to conceive or those who think they may be pregnant should not drink alcoholic drinks.

Women nursing a baby should also not drink any amount of alcohol because the alcohol can pass through the breast milk to the baby.

Women have many reasons not to drink including safety reasons, health reasons, to protect their unborn children and to protect their fertility (ability to have children) as well as to protect a nursing baby. Unfortunately advertising today makes drinking seem glamorous or in style and to many women image is important. Women should educate themselves about the danger of alcohol so that they can protect not only themselves but also their children from the dangers of alcohol. Every young girl should be taught about alcohol and how alcohol can effect her differently because she is a female so she understands how alcohol can effect her life now and in the future should she chose to drink alcohol.

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