Posted by BarbaraCat on October 16, 2002, at 0:02:04
In reply to ANXIETY - Anyone cured?, posted by shakingoscar on October 15, 2002, at 5:56:44
I've observed something during my very long history as a cat owner (being owned by them is more like it). The female cats have ALL been very much more anxious than the males. They are not sociable as are the males. The guys all hang out and enjoy life and the girls are on the defensive. They just don't seem as happy or content, much as I love them all equally. This is not just my observation either and is shared with my cat loving friends.
All my cats have been spayed and neutered around 7 months of age so it must not be the normal estrogen/testosterone suspects, at least not as we're used to. Fixed animals still make hormones, but not nearly at the same ratios and concentrations than when they've got all their parts.
I'm not suggesting that human males are any less anxious than human females. It's just that there appears to be something going on in the female brain that engenders fear and anxiety, at least in a cat. And it's not the usual stereotyped male/female hormonal differences if their usual hormones aren't big players anymore. One idea may be that as estrogen decreases, as in spayed cat females, testosterone increases. Neutered male cats experience an increase in estrogen as their testosterone levels decrease. This happens with menopausal and andropausal humans as well. So this is telling me something, but I know not what for sure. Only that there's probably some hormonal common denominator for mood dysfunction and it's not relegated to one sex over the other. It seems to suggest estrogen as being an important mood regulator. But I don't expect men to be lining up for estrogen shots any time soon. And finding spayed and neutered humans might be tough for conducting a proper research study. But Hey, I'm serious about these ponderings and welcome your thoughts. - BarbaraCat
poster:BarbaraCat
thread:109458
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20021012/msgs/123855.html