Women & Alcohol - Do Women Get "Drunker" Than Men?
Women drink much less alcohol than men on average, but when women drink, a woman will get drunk with less alcohol than a man; women get drunk quicker than men; and women stay drunk longer than men. Consequently, when drinking and driving, females are more susceptible to being arrested for DUI and have to be more careful than men. Women will have higher concentrations of alcohol in their blood and become more impaired than men after drinking the same amount of alcohol. This is because women absorb alcohol quicker than men and metabolize (break down) alcohol slower than men. Some of the reasons are as follows:
Size. Women are typically smaller than men with less blood volume
which creates a higher concentration of alcohol. A smaller liver will mean
that it takes longer to metabolize or break down the alcohol consumed.
Body fat. Women have more body fat
than men and since fat contains less water, women have less
body water than men of the same body weight. Since alcohol dilutes in
water, a female who is the same size and weight as a man
will have a higher blood alcohol concentration than the man because she has less
body water to dilute the alcohol.
Alcohol Dehydrogenase. An enzyme which exists in the lining of the
stomach and in the liver, called alcohol dehydrogenase, serves to metabolize or
break down alcohol naturally occurring in the body. Men have more alcohol dehydrogenase
than females which allows men to break down alcohol faster than women.
This causes alcohol to remain in a woman's blood stream longer.
Hormones. Premenstrual hormonal changes causes women to become
drunk even quicker during the days before a female gets her period. Birth
control pills and any medication with estrogen will increase alcohol levels.
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