Women: Are you feeling angry? Age may be a factor.
According to a new analysis published this month in the journal Menopause, women experience anger more frequently as they get older. But at the same time, we also grow less likely to verbalize or otherwise express it.
The Seattle Midlife Women’s Health Study – a research effort in which several hundred women between ages 35 and 55 chronicled their feelings of anger, as well as their menstrual cycles, perimenopausal and menopausal states and more – found that increases in age brought about more feelings of anger in participants, in tandem with a heightened tendency to suppress them.
“The mental health side of the menopause transition can have a significant effect on a woman’s personal and professional life,” said Dr. Monica Christmas, associate medical director for The Menopause Society, the organization that published the journal, in a press release on her group’s analysis of the data.
It’s less of a social-awareness matter, and more science, Christmas continued. “It is well recognized that fluctuations in serum hormone concentrations during the postpartum period, as well as monthly fluctuations in reproductive-aged women corresponding with their menstrual cycles and during perimenopause, can result in severe mood swings associated with anger and hostility.”
But whether or not tamping down these emotions is a net good is another discussion altogether. After all, other research efforts – including another 2025 study – say that holding back one’s anger can cause spikes in anxiety and depression. In everyone, but women in particular.
Either way, experts say, giving women more information about their bodies and minds, and the changes they undergo over time, is an agreed-upon good. Noted Christmas: “Educating women about the possibility of mood changes during these vulnerable windows and actively managing symptoms can have a profound effect on overall quality of life and health.”
