For centuries, women’s mental health was misunderstood or misdiagnosed as "hysteria.” This concept of hysteria originated in ancient Greece around the 5th Century A.D. and was derived from the word hystera. Throughout history women’s symptoms of depression, anxiety, or chronic pain have been diagnosed and labeled as hysteria – and directly related to their reproductive organs.

It wasn’t until the late 20th Century that people began to recognize and validate women’s mental health issues. As women began to challenge societal norms and centuries-old gender roles, women’s mental health awareness — and mental health awareness in general — became a global talking point. Instead of writing off symptoms of anxiety, depression, and other mental illnesses, physicians began to diagnose and treat these conditions with various therapies and medications. More importantly, men began to realize that women’s mental health was not literally tied to their reproductive organs.¹  

But, why are women more frequently diagnosed with mental health challenges? Although we do have to understand that there has been some gender bias. There are a few factors that contribute to this:

• Women are more likely to experience socioeconomic pressures like poverty, caregiving burdens, and disproportionate job security and pay.
  
  
• Women have higher exposure to trauma, with 1 in 3 women having experienced some form of physical violence by an intimate partner and 1 in 7 women having been stalked.² 
   
• Gender bias affects how women's pain is interpreted and treated, which has mental health consequences. In emergency care settings, women are 13 - 25% less likely than men to receive opioid medications and they wait longer to see doctors, even after controlling for age, race, class, and pain scores. This often contributes to anxiety and depression as untreated pain takes its toll.³  
   
• Women are more likely to be diagnosed with depressive and anxiety disorders, even when their symptoms overlap with other conditions such as thyroid disease, autoimmune disorders, or chronic pain syndromes due to factors including diagnostic bias and gendered assumptions, reporting differences, and skewed measurement tools.⁴  

Although we have seen improvement in diagnosing and treating 

and mental health, advocating for women’s health remains important for advancing care and treatment. As recent as 2009, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services shows that women are nearly twice as likely as men to be diagnosed with major depression, two to three times more likely to be diagnosed with anxiety and represent almost 90% of people living with eating disorders.⁵   

What can we do about this? We must advocate for ourselves and our loved ones and actively seek to find resources and organizations that can help us understand our unique needs as women. Education is key, as is speaking up to ensure your symptoms are recognized and treated appropriately.