MDMA may be more harmful to women than men
According to the Global Drugs Survey, MDMA has sent more women than men to the emergency room in the UK over the last three years. Four times as many women than men have been sent to the ER with MDMA in their systems.
There is research that suggests that this could be caused by the way that MDMA interacts with the body’s chemistry.
“What I would say to female ecstasy users is that you need to more careful than. Everyone has to be careful, but I think women need to pay extra attention to things like how much they are using, how they are mixing, where they are and who they’re with.” said Dr Adam Winstock, the founder of the Global Drugs Survey
The theory…
The Global Drugs Survey investigates drug use habits and they were picking up on the different way in which genders are responding to drugs.
A theory is that the active ingredient in MDMA causes your body to retain more water. In rare cases this could lead to brain swelling. Oestrogen, the female hormone, impairs cells’ ability to release water, which suggests that women are at greater risk.
Ten females have died in the UK this year from taking MDMA; that is double what it was last year. An estimated two hundred thousand of British people take MDMA on the weekends.
Previously deaths caused by ecstasy were as a result of pills that had been tampered with. However, the issue these days appears to be that people are taking more drugs than they mean to, in stronger doses.
“With ecstasy-related deaths approaching the highest they have ever been, alongside some of the highest and most variable strength ecstasy pills in circulation, it’s more important than ever this coming party season to take extra care.” said Fiona Measham, a professor of criminology at Durham University
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