Genevieve Chase battled depression after coming home from Afghanistan, but reaching out to her fellow soldiers was difficult, even though she considered them brothers.

After all, could those men explain to their wives that "another woman" was on the phone at 3 a.m. to talk about the war?

It is one small example of the challenges faced by female veterans as they return from Iraq and Afghanistan, many of whom suffer from the same combat stress as their male counterparts.

And it is why Sen. Mark R. Warner has successfully secured funding for a Department of Veterans Affairs study addressing the growing number of women who suffer from combat stress.

Warner hosted a discussion Monday at the Norfolk Public Library to listen to veterans like Chase, of Alexandria, Va., a staff sergeant in the Army Reserves who served with the 10th Mountain Division and experienced a suicide attack on her convoy.

"I had to hear straight from these combat veterans that our system is not fully taking care of the very unique stresses that (women) are under after they finish their deployments," Warner said.

The event also brought together health experts and VA representatives to talk about unique challenges that women face in war.

Women are not allowed in roles where the primary job is direct ground combat. But the battle lines are far from clear in Iraq and Afghanistan, and women find themselves in harm's way while serving as drivers, gunners or military police.

In addition to some 120 deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan, more than 650 women have been wounded.

Kayla Williams, of Ashburn, Va., is a former Army sergeant and Arabic linguist who took part in the 2003 invasion of Iraq with the 101st Airborne Division.

She went out on combat foot patrols in Baghdad and "felt like I was a soldier first," she said.

That changed when she came home and went out socially with the men in her unit.

"People that we met in public would just assume I was a girlfriend or wife or miscellaneous hanger-on," she said. "They didn't look at me and think, 'That's a veteran, too.'"

"That feeling of invisibility," she said, "was one of the first challenges I faced when I got back."

Williams said she believed that the government recognized her problem when a social worker at a West Virginia VA center asked how she planned to spend July 4th.

"She knew that combat vets often have trouble with fireworks," she said. "Just that tiny question was a symbol to me that she knew the population she was interacting with."

Despite these barriers, Williams and Chase managed to reach out in a big way. Williams wrote about her experiences. Chase founded American Women Veterans, an advocacy group with about 2,000 online members.

The efforts of VA medical centers were given mixed reviews by participants, and Warner said the system might need more funding to implement any measures that the study recommends. But one state official said the real solution lies in partnerships — and Virginia is well positioned to do some good. Helping the combat-stressed involves the Defense Department, rural health initiatives and other efforts, said Catherine Wilson, executive director of the Virginia Wounded Warrior Program.

"The VA cannot do it alone," she said. "There are going to be some veterans that will never access the VA because they choose not to."

In Virginia's case, it helps immensely that the Wounded Warrior Program, which was established in 2008, is within the state Department of Veterans Services, Wilson said.

And in April, the program put $1.7 million into community programs to expand services for veterans and their families.