Data from the National Drug Strategy Household Survey shows that risky drinking behaviours in middle-aged women significantly increased between 2001 and 2019.

A Macquarie University study of women aged over 40 last year found many were using alcohol to cope with hidden perimenopausal anxiety.

An addiction specialist says health professionals are still looking for risky drinking behaviours in men, which means women are falling between the gaps.

Females get greater harm from alcohol because they can’t metabolise it as well as their male counterparts, they more quickly become dependent upon alcohol and they more quickly develop the harms from alcohol."

Dr Davis encouraged women to question whether alcohol was beneficial for them, as just one less drink could improve overall health.