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Women and Men Perceive Pain
Differently
Jennifer Wider, M.D.
Pain seems to affect women and men differently, even at
early ages. Studies have shown that women report pain more
often than men. Certain studies even suggest that women can
handle and cope with pain better than their male
counterparts.
As young children, boys are socialized to cope with pain
differently than girls. Boys are expected to internalize
their feelings when they get hurt, while girls aren’t
expected to hide their emotions when they’re injured. But
research has shown that male and female babies exhibit
different responses to pain only hours after birth.
Therefore, other factors must be at play.
Past studies suggest that men and women use different
pathways in the brain when it comes to pain.
“Men and women both have pain and both can inhibit pain, but
may do so by the activation of neural mechanisms that are
different in each sex,” said Jeffrey Mogil, Ph.D., who
serves as the E.P. Taylor Professor of Pain Studies at
McGill University in Montreal.
While social expectations and the brain definitely play a
role in pain perception, there are other factors involved.
It has been shown that a woman’s pain threshold varies
throughout her menstrual cycle, suggesting a potential role
for estrogen and progesterone. For example, some women with
migraine headaches complain that the pain gets worse during
menstruation.
Chronic pain conditions including osteoarthritis,
temporomandibular joint disorder, fibromyalgia and migraines
affect women more frequently than men. “Women feel more
pain, seek help more aggressively, and make more active
attempts to cope with pain than men,” said Mark Young, M.D.,
of John Hopkins University in Baltimore, in his book “Women
and Pain.” Pain conditions often hit women harder during
their childbearing years, further suggesting that hormones
play a role.
Examining the way pain medications work may hold the key in
understanding the differences between the sexes. Mogil and
colleagues have conducted many studies in the field of pain
genetics, thoroughly researching gender differences in pain
perception. They discovered that certain pain medications
actually work better in women than in men.
Researchers at the University of California in San Francisco
discovered that female patients achieved better pain control
than male patients from kappa opioids, a well-known class of
pain relievers, after surgery to remove their wisdom teeth.
In 2000, Australian researchers at the University of New
South Wales showed in a randomized controlled trial that
ibuprofen, the active ingredient in several over-the-counter
medications, works more effectively in men.
It is obvious that the perception and modulation of pain
among women and men differ. But, “we aren't doing enough to
understand and close this gender gap,” Young said. More
research is needed to further understand the role that
gender plays in the response to pain and pain relief.
August is National Pain Awareness Month. The observance is
sponsored by the National Pain Foundation and the American
Academy of Pain Medicine. You can learn more by visiting the
pain foundation’s Web site at
www.painconnection.org.
Sources
Moir, Anne, and David Jessel. Brain Sex: The real difference
between men and women. Dell, New York, 1992.
Young, Mark. Women and Pain: Why It Hurts and What You Can
Do. Hyperion, New York, 2001.
© August 25, 2005 Society for Women's Health Research |
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