Gender & The Impact on Eating Disorders (1/3)

This forum post is part 1 of 3 forum posts centered around Gender, Sexual Orientation, & Gender Roles, plus their effect on eating disorders and the development of eating disorders. This is part 1, gender & the impact on eating disorders!

The following is discussing identified gender, not necessarily biological sex.

Society tends to think of eating disorders as a female problem. However, the first eating disorder recorded in history was actually a male with an eating disorder, recorded in 1689.

Its estimated that 5-10% of anorexia patients are male and 10-15% of bulimia patients are male, and this number is actually increasing compared to past studies.

Most eating disorder behaviors and thought processes are the same across genders.

However, males and females have been found to have different preoccupations in their eating disorders. Men are actually more preoccupied with weight and food than their female counterparts. Females with eating disorders tend to have a lower body mass index, most likely because of societal pressure. While treatment is low for both genders, females are also more likely to seek out treatment for their eating disorder.

Feel free to answer any or all of the following questions:

🔥 Did the percentage of males with eating disorders shock you? Why or why not?

🔥 Did you think that there would be a difference between men and womens eating disorder behaviors & thought patterns?

🔥 What did you learn from this information?

I hope to see everyone tomorrow for our next topic: Sexual Orientation & The Impact on Eating Disorders!

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