Women tend to turn their anger on themselves, leading to depression as well as the cutting and overdosing that characterize BPD. Thus, anti-social personality disorder (ASPD) and borderline personality disorders might derive from similar underlying pathology but present with symptoms strongly influenced by gender (Paris, 1997a; Looper & Paris, 2000). We have even more specific evidence that men with BPD may not seek help. In a study of completed suicides among people aged 18 to 35 years (Lesage et al., 1994), 30% of the suicides involved individuals with BPD (as confirmed by psychological autopsy, in which symptoms were assessed by interviews with family members). Most of the suicide completers were men, and very few were in treatment. Similar findings emerged from a later study conducted by our own research group (McGirr, Paris, Lesage, Renaud, & Turecki, 2007). In short, men are less likely to seek or accept appropriate treatment, more likely to be treated for symptoms of BPD such as substance use rather than BPD itself (the symptoms of BPD and ASPD possibly deriving from a similar underlying etiology); more likely to wind up in the correctional system due to criminal behavior; and, more likely to commit suicide prior to diagnosis. Among men diagnosed with BPD there is also evidence of a higher suicide rate: "men are more than twice as likely as women—18 percent versus 8 percent"—to die by suicide.There are also sex differences in borderline personality disorders.
Since traumatic events can increase cortisol production and HPA axis activity, one possibility is that the prevalence of higher than average activity in the HPA axis of people with BPD may simply be a reflection of the higher than average prevalence of traumatic childhood and maturational events among people with BPD. Estrogen
Individual differences in womens estrogen cycles may be related to the expression of BPD symptoms in female patients. A 2003 study found that womens BPD symptoms were predicted by changes in estrogen levels throughout their menstrual cycles, an effect that remained significant when the results were controlled for a general increase in negative affect. Developmental factors
Childhood trauma
There is a strong correlation between child abuse, especially child sexual abuse, and development of BPD. Many individuals with BPD report a history of abuse and neglect as young children, but causation is still debated. Patients with BPD have been found to be significantly more likely to report having been verbally, emotionally, physically, or sexually abused by caregivers of either sex. They also report a high incidence of incest and loss of caregivers in early childhood. Individuals with BPD were also likely to report having caregivers of both sexes deny the validity of their thoughts and feelings. Caregivers were also reported to have failed to provide needed protection and to have neglected their childs physical care. Parents of both sexes were typically reported to have withdrawn from the child emotionally and to have treated the child inconsistently.