Does Menopause Cause Many Women To Initiate A Divorce?

A book just out in paperback says forget all those '70's notions that women are identical to men. Female hormones affect women's brain's in evolutionarily advantageous ways, but they may also spur older women to start new lives -- even if that means leaving their husbands behind.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Louanne Brizendine argues in "The Female Brain" that:

... it is all down to Mother Nature unplugging the "mummy part" of the female brain which she does by reducing the supply of hormones which promote maternal, caring, peace-promoting instincts. ... this change comes about with the menopause - the last big hormonal change - after which the brain is no longer subjected to the surges and fluctuating hormones which came with the menstrual cycle and resulting in moodiness, depression and even the ability to see insults when they were not intended.

... throughout the child-bearing years, the female brain is marinated in oestrogen - a hormone which effects the amygdala and prefrontal cortex, the emotional processor and emotional assessment and judgement area of her brain. The effect of this heightens a woman's communication and emotional circuits, giving rise to those maternal instincts which tend, care and do the best they can to avoid conflict to give the family unit the best possible chance of survival.

The menopause ... puts an end to the fluctuating hormone levels and with it comes a much more stable brain and a less maternal woman. A woman who, says Brizendine, is "less worried about pleasing others and now wants to please herself" and that may mean taking on new challenges or a new job and leaving the old life, including her husband, behind.

"The Female Brain" was first published in August 2006 and drew immediate controversy, principally from critics who felt that Louanne Brizendine's argument that women's brains are different could be misused as an argument that they're not as "good" as men's. The paperback edition was published last month.

Brizendine is Yale- and Harvard educated neuropsychiatrist who is currently director of the UC San Francisco Women's and Teen Girls' Mood and Hormone Clinic.

Aside from worrying about the misuse of her conclusions, critics have decried her over-reliance on self-help books to buttress her case. Writing in The Boston Globe, Mark Liberman found no scientific support for Brizendine's claim that women use 20,000 words per day versus 7,000 for men, or that girls speak faster than boys.

It seems to be true that 2/3 of all divorces are initiated by women, and the Sydney Morning Herald says "statistics worldwide ... claim the majority of divorces in couples over the age of 40 are initiated by women." A survey by AARP Magazine of almost 1,200 people who divorced in their 40s, 50s, or 60s found that women initiated 2/3 of the divorces. Kate Vetrano, chair of the ABA's Elder Law Committee, told the magazine that "They're shedding their marriages in the quest for happiness."

Is menopause to blame? The AARP survey also found that most women sought divorce for specific reasons such as their spouse's abuse (physical or emotional), infidelity, or substance abuse. That's not incompatible with Brizendine's argument that hormonal changes cause older women to put up with less than when they were in their childraising years.

And although LifeTwo believes that there is no one problem called a "midlife crisis," Brizendine's book does argue that women at midlife may have biochemical reasons to be less happy than they once were, and to be ready to make dramatic changes.