Women attempt suicide more often than men. This pattern holds across age groups and is consistent worldwide. Among U.S. high school students in 2023, 12.6% of girls reported attempting suicide in the past year compared to 6.4% of boys, making girls roughly twice as likely to attempt. But men die by suicide at two to three times the rate women do. This split is so well documented that researchers call it the “gender paradox” of suicide.
The Numbers for Teens and Adults
The gap between male and female suicide attempts is clearest in adolescent data, where large surveys track self-reported behavior year to year. CDC data from the 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that female high school students were about twice as likely as males to have attempted suicide (12.6% versus 6.4%). They were also nearly twice as likely to have seriously considered an attempt (27.1% versus 14.1%) and to report persistent sadness or hopelessness (52.6% versus 27.7%).
These numbers have been climbing for girls in particular. Between 2019 and 2021, the rate of reported suicide attempts among female students rose from about 11% to 13.3%, while the rate among male students stayed flat at 6.6%. Adult data follows a similar pattern: women consistently report higher rates of nonfatal suicide attempts across national surveys.
Why Men Die by Suicide More Often
Despite attempting less often, men account for the large majority of suicide deaths. Worldwide, men die by suicide at two to three times the rate women do. The primary explanation is method choice. Men tend to choose more immediately lethal methods, such as firearms, hanging, or jumping, while women more often use methods like medication overdose or self-harm that are less likely to be fatal. Attempts by men more frequently require intensive care and carry a higher risk of death.
This difference in method choice reflects several overlapping factors. Men generally express higher intent to die during attempts, making them more likely to select methods with little chance of survival. Cultural expectations also play a role: nonfatal suicidal behavior is often stigmatized as a sign of weakness in men, which may push some men away from expressing distress through less lethal means and toward more decisive action. Women, by contrast, may sometimes use less lethal methods as a way to communicate the severity of their distress rather than with a firm intent to die.
Different Risk Factors by Gender
The mental health conditions and life circumstances that drive suicide attempts differ between men and women. For women and girls, depression is the strongest and most consistent risk factor. Among adolescents, the link between depression and suicide attempts is stronger for girls than for boys. Bullying, sexual dating violence, and other forms of victimization also increase attempt risk more sharply in girls, largely because these experiences trigger or worsen depression.
For adult women, previous trauma, a history of incarceration, and earning less than $40,000 per year are associated with greater risk. For men, the risk profile looks different: conditions like borderline personality disorder, schizophrenia, psychotic symptoms, and a parental history of suicide attempts are more strongly linked to attempts. Men are also more prone to impulsive, externally directed behavior, which can translate into sudden, high-lethality attempts with less warning.
Alcohol abuse plays a significant role for both genders but is more prevalent among men, and it contributes to the higher lethality of male attempts by lowering inhibition and increasing impulsivity.
The Help-Seeking Gap
One of the starkest gender differences is how often people reach out for help before an attempt. About two-thirds of people who attempt suicide had some contact with mental health or substance abuse services in the prior year, but men are significantly less likely to be among them. National survey data shows that roughly 39% of men who attempted suicide had not received any psychiatric services beforehand, compared to about 30% of women. After adjusting for other factors, men were about 57% more likely than women to have gone without any mental health care before an attempt.
Women more frequently seek treatment for depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts, which can serve as an intervention point. This willingness to engage with care may be one reason women survive attempts at higher rates: they are more likely to be connected to support systems that can intervene or reduce the severity of a crisis.
What the Gender Paradox Means
The fact that women attempt suicide more often while men die from it more often means that both genders face serious, distinct risks. Focusing only on completion rates makes it easy to overlook the scale of female suffering: millions of women and girls experience suicidal crises every year. Focusing only on attempt rates can minimize the fact that men’s attempts are disproportionately fatal, often because they happen with less warning and involve methods that leave no opportunity for rescue.
For young women and girls, rising rates of depression, sadness, and hopelessness over the past decade are translating directly into more attempts. For men, the combination of less help-seeking, more lethal methods, and cultural pressure to suppress emotional distress creates a pattern where fewer attempts lead to more deaths. Both sides of this paradox represent a public health crisis, and understanding the differences is essential to addressing either one effectively.