How do the male and female hormonal responses to stress differ?
When a “flight or fight” situation happens, testosterone levels in both men and women go up to take action. When testosterone levels rise in men, the stress hormone, cortisol, has a tendency to go down. New research in the last four or five years has shown that oxytocin is the primary hormone in a woman’s body that is responsible for helping her cope with stress effectively. Oxytocin is the bonding hormone, it’s the friendship hormone. In the work environment, all day long, time is spent solving a problem, feeling urgency or emergency, which stimulates the production of testosterone. This feels good for men. But there’s not a lot of time to produce oxytocin. A woman’s supplies become depleted throughout the day. She feels exhausted when she comes home from work. On top of that, she’s thinking of all the tasks and problems waiting for her there. How do these differences play out in behavior? An anecdotal example: I’m doing a book tour and started early in the morning yesterday and went
