Why are women diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder more than men? Borderline Personality Disorder is diagnosed predominantly in women. There is a female to male sex ratio of approximately 3:1 for this disorder. Theories about why borderline personality disorder occurs more often in women - Sexual abuse, which is common in the childhood histories of borderline patients, happens more often to women than to men. Women experience more inconsistent and disabling messages in this society. – Women are more vulnerable to bipolar disorder because they are socialized to be more dependent on others and more sensitive to rejection. – Doctors tend to be biased. Studies have shown that mental health professionals tend to diagnose BPD more often in women than in men, even when patient profiles are identical except for the patient's gender. - Men seek psychiatric help less often. - Men are more likely to be treated only for their alcoholism or substance abuse; their borderline symptoms go unnoticed because BPD is assumed to be a female disorder. Borderline women find themselves in the mental health system; borderline males are in prison. (www.bpdcentral.com) Skodol, A. & Bender, D (2003) also addressed several theories of gender bias with this diagnosis. Their research on gender bias in borderline personality disorder indicates that: - The high baseline rate of women in clinical settings may be one reason why clinicians perceive more women as having BPD. - Women and men present different symptom patterns, as a criterion of identity disorder, which tends to be significantly more common among women. Female patients tend to receive unwarranted diagnoses of bipolar disorder more often when the doctor is a woman, suggesting less acceptance by women of borderline traits and behaviors in women. - Sampling biases in research - Biological differences in which men show more aggression and externalizing behavior patterns and women show more behavioral inhibition and internalizing. - Sociocultural differences Johnson, DM., Shea M.