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Quick Stats
Excessive
Alcohol Use and Risks to Women’s Health
Although men are more likely to drink alcohol and drink in larger
amounts, gender differences in body structure and chemistry cause women to
absorb more alcohol, and take longer to break it down and remove it from
their bodies (i.e., to metabolize it). In other words, upon drinking equal
amounts, women have higher alcohol levels in their blood than men, and the
immediate effects occur more quickly and last longer. These differences also
make women more vulnerable to alcohol’s long-term effects on their health.1
Reproductive Health
- National surveys show that about 6 out of every 10 women of
child-bearing age (i.e., aged 18–44 years) use alcohol, and slightly
less than one-third of women who drink alcohol in this age group
binge
drink.2
- In 2002, about 10% of pregnant women used alcohol, and 2% drank
excessively.3
- Excessive drinking may disrupt
menstrual cycling and increase the risk of infertility, miscarriage,
stillbirth, and premature delivery.4,5
- Women who binge drink are more likely
to have unprotected sex and multiple sex partners. These activities
increase the risks of unintended pregnancy6 and sexually transmitted
diseases.7
Alcohol and Pregnancy
- Women who drink alcohol while pregnant increase their risk of having
a baby with
Fetal Alcohol
Spectrum Disorders (FASD). The most severe form is
Fetal Alcohol
Syndrome (FAS), which causes mental retardation and birth defects.
- FASD are completely preventable if a woman does not drink while
pregnant or while she may become pregnant.
- Studies have shown that about 1 of 20 pregnant women drank
excessively before finding out they were pregnant.8 No amount
of alcohol is safe to drink during pregnancy. For women who drink during
pregnancy, stopping as soon as possible may lower the risk of having a
child with physical, mental, or emotional problems.
- Research suggests that women who drink alcohol while pregnant are
more likely to have a baby die from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).
This risk substantially increases if a woman binge drinks
during her first trimester of pregnancy.9
- The risk of miscarriage is also increased if a woman drinks
excessively during her first trimester of pregnancy.10
Other Health Concerns
- Liver Disease: The risk of cirrhosis and other
alcohol-related liver diseases is higher for women than for men.11
- Impact on the Brain:
Excessive drinking may result in memory loss and shrinkage of the
brain.12 Research suggests that women are more vulnerable
than men to the brain damaging effects of excessive alcohol use, and the
damage tends to appear with shorter periods of excessive drinking for
women than for men.13
- Impact on the Heart: Studies have shown that women who drink
excessively are at increased risk for damage to the heart muscle than
men even for women drinking at lower levels.14
- Cancer: Alcohol consumption increases the risk of cancer of
the mouth, throat, esophagus, liver, colon, and breast among women. The
risk of breast cancer increases as alcohol use increases.15,16,17,18
- Sexual Assault: Binge drinking
is a risk factor for sexual assault, especially among young women in
college settings. Each year, about 1 in 20 college women are sexually
assaulted. Research suggests that there is an increase in the risk of
rape or sexual assault when both the attacker and victim have used
alcohol prior to the attack.19,20
References:
- Ashley MJ, Olin JS, le Riche WH, Kornaczewski A, Schmidt W, Rankin
JG.
Morbidity in alcoholics. Evidence for accelerated development of
physical disease in women. Arch Intern Med 1977;137(7):883–887.
- National Center for Health
Statistics. Health,
United States 2007 with Chartbook
on Trends in the Health of Americans. Hyattsville, MD: Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics,
2007. Available at
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus07.pdf
(PDF). Accessed March 28, 2008.
- Tsai J.
Alcohol consumption among women who are pregnant or
who might become pregnant—United States, 2002. MMWR 2004;53;1178–1181.
- Mendelson JH, Mello NK.
Chronic alcohol effects on anterior pituitary and ovarian hormones in
healthy women. J Pharmacol Exp Ther 1988;245(2):407–412.
- Wilsnack SC, Klassen AD, Wilsnack RW.
Drinking and reproductive dysfunction among women in a 1981 national
survey. Alcohol Clin Exp Res 1984;8(5):451–458.
- Naimi TS, Lipscomb LE, Brewer RD, Gilbert BC.
Binge drinking in the preconception period and the risk of unintended
pregnancy: Implications for women and their children. Pediatrics
2003;111(5):1136–1141.
- Thomas AG, Brodine SK, Shaffer R, Shafer MA, Boyer CB, Putnam S, et
al.
Chlamydial infection and unplanned pregnancy in women with ready access
to health care. Obstet Gynecol 2001;98(6):1117–1123.
- Floyd RL, Decoufle P, Hungerford DW.
Alcohol use prior to pregnancy recognition. Am J Prev Med
1999;17(2):101–107.
- Iyasu S, Randall LL, Welty TK, et al.
Risk factors for sudden infant
death syndrome among northern plains Indians. JAMA
2002;288(21):2717–2723.
- Kesmodel U, Wisborg K, Olsen SF, Henriksen TB, Sechler NJ.
Moderate alcohol intake in pregnancy and the risk of spontaneous
abortion. Alcohol & Alcoholism 2002;37(1):87–92.
- Loft S, Olesen KL, Dossing M.
Increased susceptibility to liver disease in relation to alcohol
consumption in women. Scand J Gastroenterol
1987;22(10):1251–1256.
- Hommer DW, Momenan R, Kaiser E, Rawlings RR.
Evidence for a gender-related effect of alcoholism on brain volumes.
Am J Psychiatry 2001;158:198–204.
- Mann K, Batra A, Gunthner A, Schroth G.
Do women develop alcoholic brain damage more readily than men?
Alcohol Clin Exp Res 1992;16(6):1052–1056.
- Urbano-Marquez A, Estruch R, Fernandez-Sola J, Nicola JM, Pare JC,
Rubin E.
The greater risk of alcoholic cardiomyopathy and myopathy in women
compared with men. JAMA 1995;274(2):149–154.
- Baan R, Straif K, Grosse Y, Secretan B, et al. on behalf of the WHO
International Agency for Research on Cancer Monograph Working Group.
Carcinogenicity of alcoholic beverages. Lancet Oncol
2007;8:292–293
- Smith-Warner SA, et al. Alcohol and breast cancer in women: A pooled
analysis of cohort studies. JAMA 1998;279(7):535–540.
- Thun MJ, et al.
Alcohol consumption and mortality among middle-aged
and elderly U.S. adults. N Engl J Med 1997;337(24):1705–1714.
- Department of Health and
Human Services. Tenth Special Report to the U.S. Congress on Alcohol and
Health. Bethesda, MD: National Institutes on Alcohol Abuse and
Alcoholism; June 2000. Available at
http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/10report/intro.pdf
(PDF). Accessed March 31, 2008.
- Mohler-Kuo M, Dowdall GW, Koss M, Wechsler H.
Correlates of rape
while intoxicated in a national sample of college women. Journal of
Studies on Alcohol 2004;65(1):37–45.
- Abbey A.
Alcohol-related sexual assault: A common problem among college students.
J Stud Alcohol Suppl 2002;14:118–128.
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Page last reviewed: August 6, 2008
Page last modified: August 6, 2008
Content source: Division of Adult and Community Health,
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and
Health Promotion |
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