Women Are Most Stressed by Marriage, Men by Work!

It is clear that men and women come from different planets, and what's good for women can be nonsignificant for men. Another chapter in this issue has been revealed by a new research carried on at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and published in the journal "Health Psychology".

The biggest stress inducing factor for a woman was found to be an unhappy marriage: the worse the marriage, the higher the stress level (measured on the stress hormone, cortisol). But the stress level was not impacted in the case of the men by the happiness in their marriage; men's stress level appeared to be influenced rather by how busy they were at work, not by their family life.

"As far as women are concerned, being happily married appears to bolster physiological recovery from work. Women in unhappy marriages are coming home from a busy day and, instead of having some time to relax and have a spouse picking up the load of setting the table, getting dinner going, signing forms for the kids, these women may have immediately to launch back into another stressful routine", said lead researcher Darby Saxbe.

"Perhaps in happily married couples the demands of domestic life are being shared more equitably between men and women, or at least that may be the case when wives return home from a demanding day at work", added Darby.

The research was made on 60 married parents who were first questioned about their satisfaction level concerning their marriage and how busy was their job. Saliva samples were collected from subjects in the early morning, afternoon and evening for assessing cortisol levels.

Happy wives presented a drop in the cortisol level compared to other women, while in the case of men, cortisol levels were boosted by how busy their work was.

Cortisol is released in higher amounts by the adrenal glands when a person experiences stress. Their level is naturally higher in the morning, and lowers constantly along the day. The speed of this decrease has been connected to a "feel good" state.