Women and depression
Depression is encountered in women twice as often as in men. Among the factors that can prone a woman to depression we see hormonal causes like irregular menstrual periods, pregnancy, miscarriage, postpartum period, perimenopausal period and menopause. In addition, women can encounter problems that can eventually induce depression in responsibilities like single parenting a child or care for old parents.
Hormonal manipulation was shown in studies to have effect on women's mood and physical symptoms. When experiencing severe PMS symptoms, women with prior vulnerability to PMS showed improvement in the psychological matter when their sex hormones were suppressed and returned to the previous stage immediately after the hormones were re – introduced.
The postpartum period may induce in some cases depression because women who have recently gave birth are more vulnerable due the physical changes that occur and the emotional changes of new added responsibilities. Bad moods are normally encountered in new mothers but a full-blown depressive episode is not a normal occurrence and requires immediate intervention.