Increasing life expectancy usually brings an increase in long-term care needs, and women continue to be the ones providing the majority of informal care. It has been shown that caregiving creates a strain on one’s health, but the impact of providing care on men and women has not been explored extensively by previous studies. To fill this gap, a study by Damiano Uccheddu, Anne H. Gauthier, Nardi Steverink and Tom Emery used data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) to identify the impact of the transition into and out of providing care for a spouse on the health of carers. They looked at heterosexual couples aged 50+ who lived together throughout an 11-year period of observation. Based on their results, the transition into caregiving had detrimental consequences for the health of both men and women. But the effect of transitioning out of caregiving is not straightforward as the authors found it to only offer benefits to women from southern and eastern European countries. Men and women in these areas also experienced the strongest health effects from caregiving compared to those in western and northern Europe. From their study, the impact of providing care is clear, but there is only minor relief that comes for some when care no longer has to be provided.