Women Are Drinking More—and Doctors Are Worried

I would like to give a shout-out to all the women who've joined the labor force, especially those who also work part-time as mothers? I'm at a total loss however, to explain why they're drinking heavily?

Women Are Drinking More—and Doctors Are Worried

Women are experiencing rising alcohol-related deaths at a faster clip than men, data show

By Brianna Abbott

May 13, 2025 8:00 pm ET

• Women’s alcohol consumption is up, leading to increased health risks like liver disease and potentially breast cancer.

• Factors like college attendance, higher incomes, and delayed parenthood contribute to women drinking more.

• Breast cancer rates are rising, and studies suggest even one daily drink can increase a woman’s risk by about 10%.

At bars and dinner tables across the U.S., women are throwing back more drinks—raising concerns about the health consequences of their alcohol consumption.

Women in their 30s and 40s have increased their alcohol consumption in recent decades, as their lifestyles have changed. Women who turned 35 between 2018 and 2019 were nearly 60% more likely to report recent binge-drinking or alcohol use disorder symptoms than women who turned 35 between 1993 and 1997, according to a 2023 report published in the journal Addiction.

Doctors are now witnessing more hospitalizations of women for liver disease, and some researchers suspect alcohol consumption is contributing to rising rates of breast cancer. Women are also experiencing increasing alcohol-related deaths at a faster clip than men, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open.

“It’s not pay parity; it is drinking parity, and that is a big issue in terms of health risks,” says Mary Beth Terry, a cancer epidemiologist at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.

Americans’ changing drinking habits depend largely on their age bracket. Consumption among teenagers is going down, decreasing faster among boys than girls. The same is true for young adults. But for older cohorts, men’s drinking rates have held relatively steady or declined slightly, and women’s have increased in recent decades, data suggests, particularly for those who are college-educated or high-income.

U.S. women still drink less heavily than men overall and experience fewer related deaths, but that gap is shrinking here and across the globe. Men born in the early 1900s were three times more likely to drink alcohol problematically than women in the same group, a 2016 global analysis found. That gap shrank among those born in the 1990s, with the likelihood narrowing to 1.2 times.

Kari Vandenberg-Bastian’s first-ever drink, a strawberry daiquiri on her 21st birthday, was one to remember. Her mother, a religious woman and a staunch nondrinker, cried. Soon after, the Nevada native started working in dive bars and then upgraded to sales for a beer company. After-work drinks with colleagues became common.

There were blurry nights out with friends and book clubs that devolved into wine nights. Wanting a shift in career, Vandenberg-Bastian went back to school and became a travel nurse. With every new clinic assignment came a familiar ritual: drinks at the airport between flights and regular nights with a glass of wine to unwind after a long shift.

“I definitely over-consumed. I don’t know many people that don’t,” said Vandenberg-Bastian, 39, who lives in Camas, Wash. “It was something that was expected.”

Women are likely drinking more for a number of reasons: They are more likely to attend college, where heavy alcohol consumption is a staple. They are earning more and have more discretionary income. And women are also getting married and having children later in life or not at all, extending their child-free social lives.

Beer, spirit and wine companies have also worked to bring in more women customers, some researchers said.

“The alcohol industry is marketing directly toward women,” said Sherry McKee, director of the Yale Program for Sex Differences in Alcohol Use Disorder. “Are they marketing toward women because they are a market, or did the industry create a market? Probably a bit of both.”

Alcohol industry groups have said that alcohol consumed in moderation can be part of a healthy lifestyle for some people and generally acknowledge that heavy drinking increases the risk for several types of cancer.

“It is perfectly reasonable for the alcohol industry to responsibly market products that appeal to their adult consumers’ specific tastes, preferences and lifestyle choices,” said Amanda Berger, senior vice president for science and research at the Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S. “The distilled spirits industry has long demonstrated its commitment to responsible advertising practices.”

The Distilled Spirits Council and WineAmerica, a national wine industry association, said that they support moderate consumption outlined by the U.S. dietary guidelines, which currently advise a limit of two drinks a day for men and one drink a day for women. The U.S. government is set to re-evaluate its recommendations later this year.

Women’s alcohol-related health problems tend to start at lower levels of drinking compared with men. Women’s bodies tend to contain less water and more fat, resulting in a higher blood alcohol concentration than men, even when body weight and the amount consumed are equal, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

The Covid-19 pandemic boosted some of those harms, when rules around selling alcohol relaxed and many people were especially stressed, bored and isolated. Annual deaths related to excess alcohol consumption in the U.S. rose some 27% for men and 35% for women from 2016-2017 to 2020-2021, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show. The causes ranged from heart disease and stroke, to poisonings and alcohol-related vehicle accidents.

Breast cancer rates in the U.S. are also rising some 1% each year, with greater increases for women under age 50. Some researchers point to the increase in alcohol use as a potential contributor, along with other known risks including obesity and childbirth at older ages.

“We don’t fully understand why we’re seeing this, but alcohol is definitely playing a role,” said Dr. Amy Comander, breast oncologist and cancer survivorship expert at Mass General Brigham.

Drinking alcohol can increase estrogen levels, which in turn raises breast cancer risk, and other mechanisms might also contribute, researchers said. One drink a day raises a woman’s breast cancer risk by about 10%, studies suggest, a small increase that contributes to tens of thousands of U.S. cases annually. Alcohol leads to more breast cancer diagnoses than any other of the half-dozen cancers that can be linked to alcohol consumption.

In 2023, Vandenberg-Bastian found out she had stage-4 breast cancer at age 37 after she felt a lump. The diagnosis came as a shock, as did the revelation that her drinking habits could be connected.

“You know it is bad for your liver, but breast cancer?” said Vandenberg-Bastian. “People deserve access to clear and unbiased information, and I am in awe that I didn’t have that, even as a nurse.”

The exact combination of causes that contribute to any one person’s cancer is usually unknowable. But Vandenberg-Bastian suspects that alcohol played a role in her disease. She underwent chemotherapy, surgery, radiation and targeted therapy to beat back the cancer. There are currently no signs of the disease in her body, but her oncologist said there is a risk that it will come back, and Vandenberg-Bastian still takes targeted therapy.

At the start of her treatment, Vandenberg-Bastian threw herself into a healthier lifestyle and cut out alcohol. Then, she and her sister set out on a Caribbean cruise. The booze was free, and it felt like everyone else was partaking. She ordered a glass of wine.

“I’m learning moderation,” said Vandenberg-Bastian, who now drinks only on special occasions. “I’m still not perfect at it because it is an embedded thing that I’ve known for so long.”