Female Muscle Dysmorphia: Symptoms, Causes And Effects In Women
Muscle dysmorphia is a disorder that was originally described by Harrison Pope in 1993 and is mainly characterized by an obsession with continuously gaining a greater amount of muscle mass, having a distortion of one’s own body image so the person tends to appear less developed at a muscular level than it actually is.
There is a higher prevalence of muscle dysmorphia in men; However, female muscle dysmorphia has been increasing significantly in recent years. It should be noted that the symptoms of female muscle dysmorphia are very similar to those in men.
In this article we will explain in more detail What is female muscle dysmorphia?but first we will give some information regarding this disorder that it is advisable to know beforehand.
muscle dysmorphia It has been diagnosed predominantly in men, with 80% of cases; However, there are studies that have found that in recent years there has been a notable increase in the number of cases of female muscle dysmorphia, being a disorder that tends to begin to appear at ages between 18 and 35 years, although increasingly Cases are occurring at younger ages, to which is added the problem of the high risk of consumption or abuse of steroids or anabolic substances in people who suffer from this disorder.
Muscle dysmorphia, also frequently called “vigorexia”, reverse anorexia or Adonis complex, is a psychopathology whose diagnosis has given rise to some ambiguities when making a classification due to its relationship with eating disorders (ED). ), Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and also with disorders related to a distortion of one’s own body image.
However, in the Diagnostic Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) muscle dysmorphia It appears classified within obsessive-compulsive disorders; more specifically, as a specifier of body dysmorphic disorder.
Muscle dysmorphia or vigorexia is a disorder that consists of obsession with continually gaining more muscle masswithout ever being satisfied with the results obtained because there is a perception regarding one’s own body image that does not correspond to reality, and this is because these people do not see themselves as muscular enough despite having large muscles.
What is female muscle dysmorphia?
As we have mentioned previously, female muscle dysmorphia, Despite being less prevalent than men, the number of cases has been increasing in recent years.so in 2015 Amador Cernuda carried out an investigation in this regard with 1,115 women, aged between 17 and 61, who performed physical exercise in major gyms in 7 autonomous communities in Spain.
These women had to answer a survey related to muscle dysmorphia and body image, as well as the “Adonis Complex Questionnaire,” which consists of 13 questions and was developed by Harrison Pope and his collaborators to evaluate whether a person suffered from muscle dysmorphia. Pope has also been probably the most recognized researcher in the field of research on muscle dysmorphia and is also the one who coined the terms vigorexia or reverse anorexia.
The results of the study were quite surprising, since it was found that 123 women, which represents 11.03% of the total sample, fit within a diagnosis of female muscle dysmorphia, since had shown a pathological concern about their body image and they also acknowledged having consumed anabolic substances with the aim of increasing their muscle mass to try to achieve their goal on a physical and aesthetic level.
On the other hand, 28.15% of this total sample of those investigated showed, although to a lesser extent than the previous ones, a serious concern about their body image, without meeting all the criteria for the diagnosis of dysmorphia. muscle although they were at risk of developing this psychopathology or something related to body image, such as an eating disorder (e.g., anorexia).
It is also worth noting that 71% of this population that participated in the study stated that they were not happy with their abdomen and 67% of the people studied stated that they did not feel satisfied with the appearance of their buttocks for various reasons. Another interesting fact is that 53% of all those investigated were aware of the existence of trafficking in anabolic substances in the world of fitness and bodybuilding.
Explanatory model of muscle dysmorphia
Below we will explain a series of factors that influence the development of female muscle dysmorphiabeing similar to those that influence the case of men, serving as an indicative scheme, since to make a complete diagnosis it would be necessary to carry out a more exhaustive evaluation that would allow analyzing each individual case.
Research has found that the most frequent predisposing factors in cases of muscle dysmorphia are a certain influence of genetic predisposition, a series of socio-environmental factors, have certain addictive and compulsive tendencies or having experienced a series of negative experiences in the past regarding one’s own body image, among others.
These factors, in combination, when combined with some triggering factors, such as those we will mention below, increase the chances of developing muscle dysmorphia or vigorexia.
2. Triggering factors
Triggering factors are those that can act as a trigger in those people who previously had a predisposition for the development of this disorder. Among these factors it is worth highlighting the fact of having suffered a highly traumatic, hurtful or stressful experience that was caused by one’s own body imageso an obsession with improving one’s physical appearance could be triggered and one way to do so could be the search for a constant increase in body mass.
3. Maintaining factors
These factors would be those that will reinforce the maintenance of female muscle dysmorphia over time when it has already been triggered. The maintaining factors, in addition to maintaining muscle dysmorphia, also could accentuate the associated symptomssuch as the obsession with gaining greater muscle mass or the distortion with respect to one’s own body image.
Among the maintaining factors, it is worth highlighting social reinforcement in the form of praise from other people who admire remarkably muscular bodies, which encourages the person to continue increasing their muscularity. Social networks can play an important role here, as well as within the triggering factors.
You may be interested: “Social pressure: what it is, characteristics and how it affects us”
Harmful factors of female muscle dysmorphia
In the research carried out on female and also male muscle dysmorphia, various risks that could be suffered by people who exceeded the limits in order to continue gaining muscle mass.
On a psychological level, it has been shown that muscle dysmorphia has serious repercussions in terms of feelings of irritability, attacks of anger, somewhat abrupt emotional changes, hostility, symptoms of anxiety and depression, as well as a greater predisposition to steroid use in order to increase muscle mass, which could cause a withdrawal syndrome if consumption were to be stopped after a prolonged period of time resorting to this type of substance.
In the most extreme cases, in which the use or abuse of anabolics had been resorted to, both women and men could suffer serious cardiovascular, liver or kidney problems, among others.
On the other hand, in the cases of female muscle dysmorphia with steroid abuse For a long time, it has been proven that some women can suffer gynecomastia (also men), develop a hoarse voice, a notable decrease in body percentage and size of the breasts, increase in hair (hirsutism) and even lose weight. They have come to find cases of hair loss and an increase in clitoris size.
On a physical level, it has also been seen that female muscle dysmorphia, like male muscle dysmorphia, taken to the extreme In the long term they can cause bone and joint problems, muscle letter openers, a greater propensity for injuries and a notable loss of agility..
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Comorbidity
Pope and his collaborators carried out research with people who performed anachronistic training (lifting weights) in the gym, having investigated people with muscle dysmorphia and also people who did not suffer from this disorder. The results showed a high comorbidity of muscle dysmorphia with other pathologies on a psychological level as we will see below, being notably higher than in those cases in which people did not have muscle dysmorphia.
In these cases, a distinction was not made between cases of female and male muscle dysmorphia, but rather an evaluation was made regarding the dichotomy between having or not having this disorder regardless of gender, so these comorbidities could be quite similar both. in the cases of women as well as those of men.
It was found that In 58% of cases of vigorexia or muscle dysmorphia they presented depressive symptoms, compared to 20% found in cases in which muscle dysmorphia was not suffered; 29% of cases with vigorexia had comorbidity with anxiety disorders, compared to 3% in people without this disorder; and 29% comorbidity between vigorexia and EDs, compared to 7% comorbidity in subjects who did not suffer from muscle dysmorphia or vigorexia.
