Symptoms & Diagnosis

Why Borderline Personality Disorder Is More Common in Women

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According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), about 75 percent of people who are diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) are women. There are a lot of theories about why this might be.

Some psychiatrists attribute this trend to genetic or hormonal reasons, associating BPD in women with severe cases of premenstrual tension. Others blame BPD on early-onset incest, other sexual abuse, or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Other trauma, such as a devastating separation as the result of a death, rejection, or abandonment from a parent, could be the cause. And yet another theory is that women are simply diagnosed with BPD more often, while the symptoms in men simply go unnoticed, undiagnosed, or are mistaken for something else.

The sexual abuse theory tends to get the most attention. A study in the American Journal of Psychiatry found much higher rates of Borderline Personality Disorder – as well as PTSD – among women who experienced childhood sexual abuse. Incestuous abuse occurs approximately 10 times more often in women than men, and about 75 percent of women with BPD have been physically or sexually abused, according to the study.

Such early abuse tends to create a sense of victimization that can make it difficult for these women to trust men. It can also create the excessive preoccupation with sexuality and a damaged self-image that are characteristic symptoms of women with BPD.

Other theories about why BPD happens more often in women than men include the following:

  • Borderline Personality Disorder happens more often in women because they are socialized to be more dependent on others (a symptom of BPD) and can be more sensitive to rejection.
  • Mental health professionals and therapists who diagnose women with BPD may be biased. Studies reveal that clinicians are more likely to diagnose BPD in women than men, even in situations where patient profiles differ only in gender.
  • Men are less likely to seek psychological help than women, making them less likely to be diagnosed.
  • Men might be treated for alcoholism or substance abuse, whereas women are more likely to receive treatment for BPD.
  • Men with BPD are more likely to end up in jail, while women with BPD end up in treatment centers and the mental health system.

6 Comments

  1. Hi i have some theories & would like some input from other women(being the preference).
    1Firstly please let me know if it was a (male majority) that diagnosed you
    2Secondly how often is PSTD in place with the diagnosis
    3When the initial contact was made & diagnosed was there a seperation of some kind from a human took place & was the an abusive relationship or no
    4 Is it fear of abandoment or fear of acceptance of the relationship being over & public thought of the breakdown (that somehow someway) you were the fault of the relationship breakdowns’
    5 Do you believe you suffer from stockholm syndrome

    if you cant answer honestly please dont participate

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  5. My wife was diagnosed three times during our relationship alone, by both women and men. Her sexual relationship with her father was solicited by her to get back at her mother for beating her. So, yes, she is also diagnosed with comorbitdity of PTSD, Depression, and an Anxiety Disorder (all which she actually has).

    True to the DSM-V, she engages in self-destructive activities — reckless unprotected sex, reckless driving — and she is impulsive to the finite degree, with money often taking the month’s income and disappearing with a best friend’s husband. Her profession – Federal Prosecutor, currently avoiding work. 100%, she is the abuser of all her ex-husbands and all the children she bore with them. The rage is daily, the abandonment issue constant, as is the golden uterus guilt. She reads people before they speak and can manipulate a conversation away from therapy or health care provider better than psychic card reader.

    In my practice, I have worked with BPD patients, and nearly all of them were women. I knew only one man with BPD very well. While his mother sexually molested him and his sister as a small boy, she forced them to play Russian roulette with her until she shot herself. Not surprising, he shot and killed himself. Most men with this illness do not trust women ever, thus they simply don’t marry because they don’t want to relive the trauma. Only those who have lived in a BPD house truly know the violence, cruelty inflicted on children, and RAGE perpetrated behind closed doors, which spouses and children suffer permanent damage from.

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