Do Women React Differently Than Men to Meth?
Methamphetamine is one of the most popular drugs in the United States. In 2022, an estimated 176,000 Americans started using the drug. A further 1.8 million Americans, or 0.6% of the U.S. population qualified for a methamphetamine disorder. Today, that mostly means adults aged 26 or older, and almost half of these count as a severe substance use disorder. That data isn’t split by gender, but today we know that while men are more likely to abuse meth, women are just as likely to be addicted as men and are often more susceptible to cravings and addiction. That’s in part because of hormones and in part because of different societal pressures to use.
Women respond to, react to, and use methamphetamine differently than men. Yet, for many women, substance abuse treatment is the same as that designed for and delivered primarily to men. Understanding the differences and how women’s bodies and women’s lived social experiences mean different reactions to addictive substances like methamphetamine can help you to better understand treatment and what you need from it to recover.
Do Women Respond Differently to Meth than Men?
The short answer is, yes. Women respond differently to meth than men. However, the long answer is that there are a lot of factors that come into play including social upbringing, environmental factors, and hormones.
This means that treating substance use disorder has to tackle different problems.
- Women are more vulnerable to addiction than men
- Women are more vulnerable to relapse than men
- Women progress to “addiction” faster than men
- Women respond to treatment better than men
- Women show fewer symptoms of cardiovascular and brain damage following meth usage
- Women have different motivators to use and therefore require different treatment than men
While both men and women are negatively impacted by methamphetamine, the effects are different. Acknowledging and responding to those differences means creating treatment programs tailored around biology and lived experiences rather than handing everyone the same treatment programs.
Hormones and Greater Vulnerability to Addiction
Women show increased susceptibility to the effects of stimulants including cocaine and methamphetamine than men. Women are more likely to show a strong tendency towards cravings and addiction, with more vulnerability to the reward effects of stimulants.
That’s thought to be linked to estrogen, with multiple studies showing increased effects of methamphetamine and other stimulants during the estrogen producing period of the menstrual cycle. Women on progesterone-based birth control are also at increased risk, as progesterone may increase the reward or stimulating effects of methamphetamine, increasing cravings, and increasing the effect of the drug.
As a result, women are more vulnerable to addiction to begin with. Women move from the cycle of initiating methamphetamine usage to addiction faster than men. Women are also more likely to experience relapse even after getting treatment.
This also means that trans women are potentially especially vulnerable to methamphetamine reward and addiction. Anyone taking estrogen supplementation or hormonal supplementation is likely to see increased effects of methamphetamine and therefore to be more at risk of rapidly becoming addicted to the drug. That vulnerability is further exacerbated by low mental health and a strong tendency to use stimulants in the LGTBQ++ community.
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More Resilience to Long-Term Damage
Women using stimulants such as cocaine and methamphetamine are less likely to show abnormalities of blood flow, heart, and brain blood flow than men. They are also likely to show similar negative impacts to concentration, learning, and achievement – even when using methamphetamine for longer than men. The mechanism behind this resilience is poorly understood but may have something to do with hormonal changes.
However, that doesn’t mean women don’t experience damage from methamphetamine abuse. Women see significant reductions in gray matter volume when using meth. This reduces blood and oxygen levels in the brain and can reduce cognition, attention, memory, and emotional processing. Like with men, this damage is expected to heal after about 2 years of abstinence.
Different Motivators to Use
Women often report using methamphetamine and other substances for very different reasons than men. For example:
- Women report significant rates of co-occurring depression when using methamphetamine. For some women, methamphetamine initiation is a tactic to manage depression while maintaining energy levels to continue household responsibilities. Methamphetamine is a stimulant and may be used to reduce side-effects and symptoms of low-mood and sleeplessness – or for self-medication. This means that treatment must involve treating the co-occurring disorder to prevent a relapse and a return to self-medication following treatment.
- Women very often have roles related to caregiving and social support which they cannot easily step out of. As a result, women cite using methamphetamines to keep up with work, home care, childcare, and family responsibilities. With methamphetamine taking on an enabling role, treating methamphetamine use in women may not involve changing behaviors of avoidance but rather changing behaviors of taking on too much – which means a completely different treatment trajectory is needed.
- Women face higher societal pressure to be thin and many women cite methamphetamine use as part of a weight loss strategy. This means that methamphetamine may reflect underlying eating disorders which must be treated as part of relapse prevention.
- Women are significantly more likely to be dependent on a significant other because of children or lack of independence. This can mean that exposure to methamphetamine originates in a partner or spouse and that substance abuse is likely to be a shared activity in the relationship as well as a means of escaping from domestic trouble or violence. These motivators means that significant effort must be put in to provide domestic shelters, housing assistance, and childcare assistance as part of recovery efforts to ensure that women with childcare obligations are not forced to remain in situations that trigger and result in further methamphetamine abuse.
Women use drugs like methamphetamines for significantly different reasons than men. Often, that’s exacerbated by social issues, childcare, lack of independence, and roles in which they are the primary caregiver. Women need structural support including childcare, structural treatment for mental health disorders, and help finding and treating underlying problems and disorders.
Men often need this as well, but for different motivators and problems. Therefore, the approach has to be different if both are to receive a high quality of care.
Getting Help
If you or a loved one is struggling with methamphetamine, it’s important to actively look for help. That means talking to your doctor and reaching out to a rehab center for longer-term treatment and assistance. Here, choosing a treatment center with programs for women can offer significant advantages for recovery including better interventions tailored to the motivations and underlying problems faced by women. Programs made for women also take biology into account and the increased vulnerability to cravings and addiction as well as the role hormones play in both into account – meaning you’ll receive better and more targeted treatment.
At the same time, you may want to look for treatment centers offering childcare, family therapy, aftercare with housing assistance such as sober living, and outpatient care options to enable ongoing childcare. Meeting the needs of women in recovery should mean meeting lifestyle needs as well, so that you can feel safe in taking time to go to treatment because family and responsibilities are taken care of.