Evidence shows that women have a significantly worse financial situation after divorce. Five years after the divorce, a man has 25% higher incomes than before the divorce, while a woman's income is 9% lower. Marriage is related to a longer lifespan for both men and women. While both sexes see an increase in deaths after divorce, the rate for men is 1,773 per 100,000, compared to 1,096 for women.
Sociologists hypothesize that one reason may be that men have less practice and, therefore, fewer skills, when it comes to caring for themselves. Statistically speaking, men have a harder time with anxiety, depression, and insomnia, and experience greater weight fluctuations after divorce. Some assume that women often play a greater role in advocating for healthy life and communication during marriage, which leaves men at a loss when they are alone. Men experience more health problems in the process and after a divorce.
Common health problems include weight fluctuations, depression, anxiety, and insomnia. Men also have the added stress of managing all finances and loss of identity, making them much more susceptible to both strokes and heart disease. Men are also more likely to self-medicate with alcohol and drugs than women rather than seek therapy like women do during stressful times. After their first observation on the panel, respondents who divorced were younger, less educated, lived more often with children, more often unemployed, and had slightly worse health than the control sample of those who remained married.
