However, studies have shown that a larger ratio of women to men do have this illness. My own email seems to support this. About two thirds of the people who write me about having depression are women or teenage girls. In addition, women seem to suffer from eating disorders and self-injury in greater numbers than men do. The reason or reasons why women have unipolar depression more frequently than men is less definite, due to a great extent to the fact that we don't fully understand what causes depression, whether in men or women.
Depression is a highly individual disease.
Each case is different. One person's depression may be wholly chemical, while someone else's is brought on by events and stressful factors in her life. Yet another person may suffer depression due to a combination of chemical and environmental factors. Several theories have been brought forward to explain the greater frequency of depression in women. There is no question that women have to deal with a greater number of risks to their physical and emotional well-being than men.