To the women out there, have you ever tried to explain your stress to a male partner, friend, or colleague and had them look at you blankly? It can feel both frustrating and invalidating. You can start to wonder if there is something wrong with you, telling yourself that you are too sensitive, shouldn’t let things affect you so much, or should get tougher skin. You can feel that your partner doesn’t care about you or love you.

Stress-related disorders like PTSD and depression are more common in women than men, yet historically, studies only used male rodents when seeking to understand the neurological bases of these disorders. To correct this gap in our understanding, several research groups have looked at sex differences in how male and female rats experience stress.

As an........

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