Researchers Ask: Are Men And Women Different?
Really? That was my reaction to a NY Times Headline that came across my computer this morning–In Rating Pain, Women Are The More Sensitive Sex. The article noted that women report more pain than men and “speculated” that there may be biological differences between men and women.
Honestly, this is so 1970′s thinking. For decades we’ve realized the biology of men and women is different, especially when it comes to pain. Here’s an excerpt from The Woman’s Migraine Toolkit where we review the importance of sex hormones and pain signalling and talk about how these differences affect treatment success:
Are There Other Important Differences in Pain Between Men and Women?
Men and women feel pain differently. Research studies consistently show that women are more sensitive to pain than men. They show that women feel pain at a lower stimulus than men, and pain becomes intolerable to women sooner than men.
• Women can first detect pain with a stimulus that’s nearly 20 percent less than the stimulus needed for men to feel pain.
• Pain becomes intolerable with a stimulus that’s 15 percent lower in women than men.
Similarly, studies also show that women find needle sticks and intravenous catheter placement to be more painful than men do. (The Woman’s Migraine Toolkit, Chapter 3)
Not only does research prove that women and men experience pain differently, their response to pain medications is also different, with men more responsive to some types of drugs and women to others. This is not a social or cultural difference, but a biological one. Read more in today’s Migraine.com blog, Yes Virginia–Men and Women Are Different
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