More than 99% of female and male genetic coding is the same.

The female brain has more densely packed cells.

PMS can mean that the female brain sees the future as bleak and solid and will stay like that forever.

The female brain is very deeply affected by hormones and can shape values, desires and even create her reality.

A woman’s neurological reality is not as constant as a man’s.

We have different sensitivities to stress and conflicts and tend to recall more detail of events.

11% more neurones for language and hearing in women, which means we are better at recalling and expressing the details of emotional events.

The amygdala has larger processing in men: trigger for aggression.

The female brain can perceive a few stressors as life-threatening.

Teens: girls lose interest in solitary work.

Female brain hardwiring: outstanding verbal agility, ability to connect deeply, ability to read others and ability to defuse conflicts.

A testosterone surge at 8wks in utero of the male kills off some cells in the communication centre and grows more cells in sex and aggression centres.

Baby girls take meaning about themselves from the reactions of the people they come in contact with, and require emotion in faces as a signal that they are doing things right.

Girls look for approval from their Mothers 10-20 more than boys.

Infantile puberty for boys: 9months, girls: 24months (girls are producing oestrogen, resulting in communication, observation, tending, caring, gut feelings being developed).

The ‘nervous system environment” a girl observes in her first 2years becomes a view of reality that affects the rest of her life.

Epigenetic imprinting is more impactful for girls.

Girls prefer peaceful interpersonal connections, boys don't look for this.

Children with the lowest in utero testosterone had the highest quality relationships at 4years old.

The brain’s first organising is genes + hormones, and further sculpting is from interactions with other people and the environment.

Oestrogen and progesterone make the adolescent female brain (especially) the hippocampus, sensitive to stress.

Women talk and listen more than men, and connecting through talking activates pleasure centres in the female brain. This is especially so for secrets that have romantic or sexual implications (the biggest dopamine and oxytocin rush outside an orgasm.)

Stress relief in the teenage brain is achieved by a combo of dopamine and oxytocin, which is the biological basis of the drive for intimacy with friends.

Compared with teenage boys, where testosterone decreases talking and interest in socialising except for sport or sexual pursuits.

The female brain has a more negative alert reaction to conflict, and if a relationship is threatened, cortisol takes over, and fear of rejection is the greatest source of stress.

Baboon study: mothers who were more socially connected had the greatest number of surviving infants.

Menstrual cycles: Week 1 & 2: 25% growth of connections in the hippocampus: brain is sharper, memory is better. Ovulation: connections are reversed. Week 3 & 4: brain is more sedated, less focused and slower. Last few days: sedation is lost, leaving the brain upset, stressed and irritable.

Higher levels of oestrogen and progesterone make the brain more resistant to stress as they have more serotonin. Lower levels can mean the prefrontal cortex (the seat of judgment) malfunctions so the primitive parts of the brain are used instead.

When in love the amygdala (fear alert) and anterior cingulate cortex (worrying and critical thinking) are turned down.

Long term coupling: bonding and the attachment network forms. More oxytocin and vasopressin is released. (Males use vasopressin more, females use oxytocin)

Males need to be touched 2-3 times more to maintain the same level of oxytocin.

Males bond quickly and sexually after high stress. Female rebuff affection and desire when under stress, because cortisol blocks oxytocin’s action in the female brain, shutting off desire.

Rejection hurts like physical pain because it triggers the same circuits. This is perhaps to create an alert of the danger of social separation. (Pain captures our attention.)

Female sexual turn on begins with brain turn off. The impulses that can rush to the pleasure centres and trigger an orgasm only happen if the amygdala is deactivated, and stays deactivated.

Sex-related centres are two times larger in the male brain.

During pregnancy the female brain is vigilant about safety, nutrition and surroundings, and the brain actually shrinks, regaining its size six months after giving birth.

Birthing stimulates flooding of oxytocin, forging thousands of new connections between neurones, heightening senses. (New mums can pick out their own baby’s smell with 90% accuracy, as well as cry and body movements).

Mothers have better spacial memory, as well as being more flexible, adaptive and courageous.

Females have more mirror neurones than males.

Females use both sides of the brain to respond to emotional experiences (males just use one) and the connections between emotion centres are more active and extensive in women.

The female amygdala is more easily activated by emotional nuance.

Females find it harder to suppress their fear in response to danger or pain, and their highly responsive stress trigger means females become anxious more quickly.

After menopause the brain is more steady, less stressed and less concerned about the needs of others.

Women with high career momentum scored better on measures of self-acceptance, independence and effective functioning.

Women want: joy in life, a fulfilling relationship, and less stress with more personal time.