Do women get Parkinson’s disease?

2/7/24, 6 mins reading

Yes, women do get Parkinson’s disease.

According to a recent study conducted by a group from France, Men and women under 50 years old have similar incidences of Parkinson’s disease, however, the risk of men developing Parkinson’s disease will increase more drastically than the one of women, with men 1.5 times more likely at 80 years old than women to develop Parkinson’s disease.

Although women are 1.5 times less likely to develop Parkinson’s disease than men,  women once being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease have a higher mortality rate and faster progression. Besides, women differ from men in terms of symptoms and responses to treatments.

Symptoms

• Motor symptoms: It has been recorded that motor symptoms occur later in women's PD patients with tremor and reduced rigidity coming up first. Women PD patients are more likely to develop postural issues than men.

• Non-motor symptoms: a study conducted by the Martinez-Martin group has recently found that non-motor symptoms are more common and severe among women PD patients. These non-motor symptoms include loss of smell, depression, anxiety, fatigue, constipation, and excessive sweating. In addition, the impairments of cognitive and mental capacities in women are more significant than in men.

Therapy responses Women PD patients respond to therapy differently than men PD patients.

Levodopa, as one of the most effective drugs, has been used to treat PD motor symptoms along with carbidopa. However, PD patients tend to develop side effects after use long enough. These side effects include dyskinesia (involuntary movement) and wear-off phenomenon.

Causes The specific cause of sex differences in PD patients remains unknown. One of the theories is that hormonal levels, such as estrogen, may play a role in such differences, however, no study has been able to establish the correlation between PD sex differences and estrogen levels although the hormone has been known to be neuroprotective. for the same reason, testosterone has also been studied and wasn’t found associated with PD sex differences. Further study is needed to elaborate on the sex difference in PD patients.

For more reading: Parkinson’s Disease in Women and Men

Keyword: Wear off

Wear off happens when the medication (ususally Levodopa) PD patients take is no longer working, as a result of that, motor symptoms and non-motor symptoms will come back again. Wear off is a common complication after treatment of levodopa, it will have a negative impact on the quality of PD patients lives.