Why do women get PTSD at twice the rate of men? When a woman understands this, she becomes unstoppable

Healing from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is not the same in men and women. A Woman’s ability to process and release fear changes with her cycle, and most treatments ignore this. If your trauma symptoms spike before your period – you are not imagining it, and you are not weak. Your brain is responding to your natural biology. In this blog, I explain why this is and how you can set yourself up to heal with minimal resistance and maximum growth. If you're a man, keep reading to understand how to support her.

The two weeks before a woman’s period make trauma harder to process

A 2021 meta-analysis combining 21 studies found that the hormone progesterone, which rises in the two weeks before a period, causes the brain to hold on to negative and traumatic memories more tightly under stress. This effect is strongest when a woman is under pressure, stress, with fear-based stories and experiences. That is not a mood swing. That is your nervous system responding to biology.

Data shows women get PTSD at twice the rate of men. Yet most research is done exclusively on male subjects, and almost no research tracked where women were in their menstrual cycle. That oversight may have set the field back decades, but it doesn't have to set you back. I did the research for you.

A separate review of clinical research found that higher estrogen levels, which peak around ovulation (days 10-14), significantly enhance fear extinction recall. Fear extinction recall is the brain’s ability to learn that something threatening is now safe – kinda like exposure therapy.

For example: If you’ve had a near death experience driving and are terrified of sitting behind the wheel, practicing driving around the days of ovulation (when estrogen is highest) will help you feel safe again.

The best window for trauma processing are days 10 to 14 of a woman's cycle when estrogen peaks and fear extinction recall is at its strongest. The two weeks before your period is the window to protect, not push through. Your cycle is not working against you. Most treatments never considered working with the flow, but you can.

Add birth control to the mix –  we have now f*cked our flow even more.

For example: Implanon works by keeping estrogen levels low and stable. It replaces your natural hormonal cycle with a steady, low-dose of a single synthetic progestogen. It mimics the early part of a natural menstrual cycle. It suppresses natural estrogen peaks and prevents ovulation. Essentially, you have no trauma protective window. Kinda like being in days 1-7 when hormones are lowest, the very days that it is not recommended to do any trauma work. 

Do this for 7 years without understanding the consequences, hello burnout. Then try to reboot without this awareness – the healing took me 5 years because I didn't know these principles, you can learn them in 5 days, or less.

Why do women get PTSD at twice the rate of men? One reason may be this monthly window of vulnerability. High progesterone combined with stress causes traumatic memories to be formed more deeply in the female brain.

A large prospective study found that women exposed to trauma during the two weeks before their period (after ovulation) were 3x more likely to develop flashback memories than women at other points in their cycle.

This explains my 2 months of "headlights" waking me up in a panic after my near-death experience, it was a few days before my period. The scene was stuck on repeat. How about those 7 years of continued progesterone release via Implanon whilst in a high stress environment. Suddenly, I feel seen by science.

For women who don't know these principles burnout is a matter of when, not if.

Men’s stress hormones stay relatively steady every day, following the same 24-hour pattern, high in the morning, winding down in the evening. Women’s hormones follow a monthly cycle that creates a built-in window of higher vulnerability. Men do not have this vulnerability window, so please be protective for her.

Women Healing Post Trauma Summary:

• The brain processes fear most effectively when estrogen is high

• The best time for women to process trauma are days 10-14 of the cycle, when estrogen peaks just before and during ovulation

• The most intense trauma processing work should be avoided when estrogen is lowest – after ovulation, pre-menstruation, during and after the bleed, and after giving birth

• Women on hormonal birth control have their natural estrogen suppressed. This makes it harder for the brain to process and release fear.

• We might need to rethink menopause, HRT and trauma work (estrogen reaches near zero) 

It may not always be possible to ‘go with the flow’. However, a trauma informed practitioner who understands these patterns can help women process emotions, and trauma more effectively during vulnerable times by being more aware, and sensitive.

The science makes me think about the rates of PCOS, Endometriosis, infertility, and miscarriages. Might it have something to do with how women are processing (or not processing) trauma? Might it have something to do with burnout? About 40% of employee resignation is attributed to burnout, and it’s higher among women than men. Women are not equipped with strategies to stay healthy in a male dominant workforce – that is now evenly split.

The gender gap in burnout statistics is widening. Women want to work, we want to help our partners, families, and friends. We are just so burnt out, unhappy and uncomfortable, feeling heavy, lost, misunderstood, invisible, unrecognisable to ourselves. Some research indicates women are at greater risk due to perfectionistic tendencies, wanting to be as good as men, emotional leadership resulting in emotional exhaustion. Juggling motherhood demands makes working mothers 23% more likely to burnout, having a 28-day hormonal cycle, rather than the male 24 hour reset, pushing during the vulnerability window.

When a woman understands her flow, she becomes unstoppable. 

If you want to learn how to lead like a woman, rather than keep pushing like a man, I got you.

Apply for Wellness Mentoring or The Breathwork Journey and learn the Flow To Wellness Insights, remember who you are. She's still in there, underneath the clay is your true, joyful, confident and courageous self. You can be just as, and more productive than men when you learn these insights, and you'll still have energy.

What women have said about The Breathwork Journey and Coaching with Kathy O. Their words, not mine: 

"I don't cry in front of people, this is allergies. I've never felt this seen"

"That makes so much sense when you put it that way" 

"That's really nice to hear"

"That's a good reminder, I needed that" 

"I could be myself, you could understand what I wanted to say even when I didn't have the words. You helped me verbalise. I understand myself better now"

"You helped me see a different perspective"

"I understand myself better, and am softer with myself"

"I could be vulnerable, myself, there was no judgement"

"I don't have to be in person to feel that"

Clients have confirmed - online session are just as powerful. Personally as a practitioner I feel more anchored in myself to then guide you, I find I am more "in tune" when the sessions are online. It's one of the reasons I transitioned to online only.

There are no boarders to energy transference. 

Book a complimentary Clarity Call. Not ready yet? Sign up to the NuFit Newsletter to be informed of the next Online Wellness Webinar.

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KEYWORDS: Trauma, Cycle, Period, Menstruation, Moon, Flow, Flo, Estrogen, Progesterone, Heal, Healing, Sync, Wellness, Women, Woman, Vulnerability, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Post Traumatic Growth, PTSD, PTG, Post Trauma, Vulnerability Window, Nervous System, Female.