Sloane Heffernan: Women handle stress better

There’s new research that shows women handle stress better.

Are you kidding me? Do we really need a scientific study to prove that point? I argue, no. Just this week, I had to rush my son to the emergency room after he was attacked by fire ants. Typically, a few fire ant bites wouldn’t be a big a deal, but my six-year-old has a life threatening allergy to those pesky insects.

As I was rushing around searching for the Epipen, grabbing the Benadryl and dialing the pediatrician, all that my husband could say, as I sped out of the garage was, “Do you have the right insurance card?”

How in the world could my husband be thinking about an insurance card at a time like this? Hives were quickly spreading all over my our son’s body and the child was at a high risk for going into anaphylactic shock. The easy answer was, he wasn’t thinking.

Now I am not bad mouthing my husband. Honestly, he is the best husband and father. However, he would be the first to admit that he doesn’t handle stress well. When my other son was in the hospital being treated for an extremely rare bacterial infection, my husband was rendered helpless. 

I must admit, I wasn’t in much better shape considering the circumstances, but I was able to compartmentalize the stress in order to be a strong patient advocate for my sick son.

So why do women handle stress better? Scientists say females benefit from the protective effect of estrogen produced in the brain. Researchers say if they could find a compound without the hormonal side effects, it could help treat stress-related problems in males.

Let’s face it, if they can’t handle the stress, how would they ever handle the hormones?