The bibliographical review of differences in mental health according to sex indicates poorer mental health status in women. We wonder whether the same difference is found in male and female nurses.

To verify whether there are differences in mental health between nurses and general population, between male and female nurses.

With two groups of participants (male and female nurses), paired in diverse sociodemographic variables, we propose to verify whether there are differences in mental health.

98 female nurses and 98 male nurses, aged between 22 and 56 years, paired in diverse sociodemographic variables. Mental health was measured with the GHQ-12.

Nurses presented poorer levels of mental health than the general Spanish population (ENS, 2006). Female nurses presented worse levels of mental health. When age groups are formed, these differences do not appear in the sample of middle-aged nurses.

The mental health of nurses is worse than that of the general population. When the sociodemographic conditions of male and females nurses are equaled, the mental health of the female nurses is worse than that of the male nurses in the youngest age groups. The youngest female nurses probably have greater work overload related to their multiple roles (i.e., caring for small children) and their lesser professional maturity. The need to take into account not only the variable sex (differences between men and women) but also the variable gender (related to social norms of masculine/feminine behavior) is revealed.