Women and alcohol: drinking with the boys

From multi-tasking at work to juggling a hectic social life, there are plenty of ways women outperform men. Drinking alcohol, however, isn’t usually one of them.

"When I first started out in sales, part of the job was wining and dining clients after work," says 22-year-old Mel from London. "Most of my colleagues and clients were male, and after dinner they'd usually be getting macho and lining up the drinks."

"I used to try to match them, but I just couldn't handle it. I'd usually find myself having to leave early and wobble onto a tube while they were all still back at the bar."

Increased risks

Scientific studies reveal that since women have less body water than men of the same weight, they end up with a higher percentage of alcohol in the blood (1,2). They also tend to be smaller and have a different body fat distribution to men. In short, women get more drunk, more quickly. (3)

So that’s why the Government’s recommended daily unit guidelines are up to 2-3 units for a woman, but a third more - up to 3-4 units - for a man. “If a man and a woman of the same size drink the same amount of units of alcohol, the blood alcohol level in the woman will be a third higher than that of the man,” says Dr Marsha Morgan, a hepatology consultant  at the Royal Free Hospital in London. “Alcohol goes into the body water, so if you have less body water you’ll have a higher blood alcohol level.”

This means that for any level of alcohol consumption, women are more likely to face an increased risk of getting injured or passing out after drinking too much (4). They’re also more likely to suffer from what the scientists refer to as 'cognitive impairment', which the rest of us recognise as 'not being able to think clearly after three martinis'. (5) Women even tend to have worse hangovers than men the morning after (6).

“Traditionally, women have drunk less than men, so it hasn’t tended to be an issue,” says Dr Morgan. “But more recently we’ve seen women drinking a binge-like fashion, and drinking more heavily than they have done before.”

Drinking smarter

Scientists may have demonstrated that men are somewhat less susceptible to the effects of alcohol than their female counterparts, but women can do their bit to tip the balance by simply drinking smarter.

"After the first couple of occasions of trying to keep up with the lads at the office, and facing their digs feeling rotten the next morning, I decided I wasn't even going to bother trying to match them," admits Mel.

"I found that if I ignored them and just stuck to couple of well-spaced-out glasses of wine I could easily be standing long after they'd started talking absolute rubbish. I also found that having a clear head meant that suddenly I was doing some incredible deals!"  

Aside from staying within the recommended Government guidelines, eating a proper meal before an evening out to slow down the all-important rate that alcohol is absorbed and spacing alcoholic drinks with soft drinks, are two good ways to ensure you have a night out to remember. It also pays for women to be aware of the strength of the drinks they’re ordering at the bar.

Size matters

"Men always bang on about the strength of the beer they're drinking, but a lot of women I serve are actually unsuspectingly drinking more alcohol than the men they're with," says Victoria, a 25-year-old Brighton bar worker. 

"Where I work, a large glass of wine can be nearly half a bottle. If a big group is drinking quickly, then after three rounds some women I see have drunk more than a bottle of wine – while the men have only had three relatively small bottles of beer."

And that’s before we start taking cocktails into account. It's worth bearing in mind that the lethal mix of spirits in some cocktail favourites makes them much more potent than more traditionally male tipples. Not ideal if you’re trying to stick to the Government’s recommended guidelines (up to 2-3 units a day for women, up to 3-4 for men)

With this in mind, smart girls may find that the bar isn’t the best venue for the battle of the sexes. Challenge guys to something that really counts like downing the pool balls rather than the pints!

Footnotes

(1) Frezza, M et al 1990, ‘High blood alcohol levels in women: The role of decreased gastric alcohol dehydrogenase activity and first-pass metabolism’, New England Journal of Medicine, vol 2, pp 95-99.
(2) Taylor JL et al 1996, ‘Alcohol elimination and simulator performance of male and female aviators: A preliminary report’, Aviation Space Environment Medicine, vol5, pp 407-413
(3) Mumenthaler, MS et al 1999, ‘Gender differences in moderate drinking effects’, Alcohol Res Health, vol 23, pp 55-64.
(4) Sugarman, DE 2009, ‘Are women at greater risk than men?’, American Journal of Addiction, vol 18, pp 194-197.
(5) Nolen-Hoeksema S 2004, ‘Gender differences in risk factors for alcohol use and problems’, Clinical Psychology Review, vol 8, pp 981-1010.
(6) Slutske, WS et al 2003, ‘Development and initial validation of the Hangover Symptoms Scale: Prevalence and correlates of hangover symptoms in college students’, Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, vol 27, pp 1442-1450.

Page last updated by

Ben Butler, 19 Feb 2010.

Page checked on

04 Nov 2009