Women feel pain more than men

[abdulhakeem]

Last Updated: Monday, 4 July, 2005, 09:44 GMT 10:44 UK

Women are bigger wimps than men when it comes to pain, research suggests, contrary to the popular notion that the reverse is true.

Not only do they feel pain more easily, women are less able to cope with it, believe scientists at Bath University.

Women focus on the emotional aspects of their pain, which makes it worse, while men tend to focus on the physicality.

Their findings are based on a series of pain tests on 50 men and women using triggers such as ice cold water.

Volunteers were asked to put their arm in a warm water bath for two minutes before plunging the same arm into a vat of icy water for a further two minutes or until they could stand the pain no longer.

The women felt pain much sooner than the men and were able to endure it for far less time.

Furthermore, when men were asked to think about the sensory aspects of the pain rather than the emotions related to it, the pain decreased.

This strategy did nothing to help the women.

More pain

Lead researcher Dr Ed Keogh, a psychologist at the Pain Management Unit at the university, said: "Our research has shown that whilst the sensory-focused strategies used by men helped increase their pain threshold and tolerance of pain, it was unlikely to have any benefit for women.

"Women who concentrate on the emotional aspects of their pain may actually experience more pain as a result, possibly because the emotions associated with pain are negative."

He told the journal Pain how mounting evidence suggested that "women experience a greater number of pain episodes across their lifespan than men, in more bodily areas and with greater frequency."

Dr Beverly Collette, from the British Pain Society, said: "This supports previous experimental work.

"Women tend to report to pain at lower thresholds than men. We know that we have far more women attending pain clinics than men too.

Hormones

"But it's a very complex area."

She said there were many theories to explain the gender difference.

One is that women have an innate caring role and that they are therefore more attuned to recognising pain in themselves as a warning sign in case it is something dangerous that would impair their ability to care for others.

Another theory is that it is down to hormonal differences.

"We know that women's pain threshold varies across the menstrual cycle. Postmenopausal women who take HRT tend to report more pain problems than other women

"More research needs to be done. It's hugely important because most of the drugs we use in pain have been tested on men. There is some evidence that women respond better to different pain killers than men."


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4641567.stm

[abdulhakeem]

Truth hurts: women feel pain more than men
Tue 5 Jul 2005
CRAIG BROWN

Key points
• Study suggests women feel more pain, for longer, and in more places
• Bath University study conducted into pain threshold and tolerance
• Study said to confirm perceptions in medical community

Key quote
"Research in the past has shown that in GP surgeries, there is a higher percentage of women with pain-related complaints; also that they feel pain at a lower threshold" - Dr Beverly Collett, president of the British Pain Society

Story in full THE long-held belief that women tolerate pain better than men has been thrown into doubt by new research which claims the opposite is true.

While researchers at Bath University say women feel more pain, experience it in more parts of the body, and more often and for a longer duration compared with men, their tolerance to it is also lower.

The research was the culmination of several different studies involving acute, sudden pain such as chest pain and chronic long-term pain, as well as tests on pain thresholds of healthy subjects.

One study involved asking volunteers to place their arm in a bath of warm water before plunging it into ice water.

The researchers measured the pain threshold, the point at which the participants first noticed pain, and pain tolerance - the point at which they could no longer stand the pain.

Women were found to have both a lower pain threshold and tolerance.

"Until fairly recently it was controversial to suggest that there were any differences between males and females in the perception and experience of pain, but that is no longer the case," said Dr Ed Keogh, a psychologist from the university's pain management unit (http://www.bath.ac.uk/pain-management/).

The different strategies that men and women have in coping with pain may also actually make their experience worse.

Men may take a more problem-solving approach to pain, thinking about what they can do to deal with the pain and get on with their lives.

Women, on the other hand, may be more emotional and focus on the pain and how it is making them feel, rather than thinking about how they can deal with it and get back to work.

Dr Keogh said: "Yes, there are important differences between men and women, but that is only half the story. What we have to start thinking about is why there are these differences and what are the treatment implications? There may be an argument for gender-specific pain treatment."

He said most explanations for the differences had concentrated on biological mechanisms, such as genetic and hormonal differences, but added it was becoming clear that social and psychological factors were also important.

Dr Beverly Collett, the president of the British Pain Society (http://www.britishpainsociety.org/), said the research confirmed a growing belief in the medical community that there were gender differences in the way pain was experienced.

"Research in the past has shown that in GP surgeries, there is a higher percentage of women with pain-related complaints; also that they feel pain at a lower threshold. Nobody really knows why; it may be down to learned behaviour when they were children, boys being encouraged not to dwell on it, while girls are."

However, Prof Gavin Kenny, head of Glasgow University's department of anaesthesia at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, was surprised at the study's results.

"We did a study on a similar area of pain research approximately 20 years ago, which focused on patients who were having abdominal surgery, which is extremely painful.

"A hundred patients were given buttons that they could press to give themselves addition morphine for more pain relief. We discovered through this study that male patients used 25 per cent more morphine. But this new study's results could be interesting as they raise issues about the psychological aspects that overlay it, and the psychological stresses the sexes experience."

Mr Kenny also said that in studies involving subjects plunging their arms into iced water, men were prone to taking a "macho approach" and would submerge their arm far longer than women purely because they felt that they had something to prove.

http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=738372005

[abdulhakeem]

Women have lower pain barrier

July 05, 2005
By Lewis Smith

A woman’s ability to get in touch with her emotions is a severe handicap when it comes to dealing with pain.

Research suggests that women complain loudest and longest when they are in pain. But a study at the University of Bath says that they have more to complain about than men, who suffer pain less often and in fewer places.

The study, which involved volunteers taking part in painful tasks until they could no longer stand the agony, found that women have a lower pain threshhold and tolerance levels. Ed Keogh said men may take a more physical approach to pain, meaning that they think about what they can do to deal with it. Dr Keogh said most explanations for the gender variation concentrated on biological mechanisms, such as genetic and hormonal differences, but social and psychological factors were also important.

One task involved volunteers placing an arm in a bath of warm water then into a container of ice and water.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8122-1680660,00.html

[abdulhakeem]

Women feel pain more than men, research shows

04 Jul 2005

Women feel pain more than men despite the popular notion that the opposite is true, according to research.

Scientists investigating gender differences in pain have found that not only do women report more pain throughout the course of their lifetime, they also experience it in more bodily areas, more often and for longer duration when compared to men.

There also seem to be differences in how men and women think and feel about their pain. For example, anxiety (http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/linkfwd.php?type=kw&link=http://www.patienthealthinternational.com/ncm.aspx?type=article&param=501559) may affect men and women in different ways, and the strategies used to cope with pain may actually make their experience worse.

These conclusions are based on several studies into the pain response of volunteers exposed to a pain stimulus, such as a cold water bath, as well as field studies in clinics and hospitals.

“Until fairly recently it was controversial to suggest that there were any differences between males and females in the perception and experience of pain, but that is no longer the case,� said Dr Ed Keogh a psychologist from the Pain Management Unit at the University of Bath*.

“Research is telling us that women experience a greater number of pain episodes across their lifespan than men, in more bodily areas and with greater frequency.

“Unfortunately all too often the differences between males and females are not considered in pain research or practice, and instead are either ignored or statistically averaged.�

There remains much discussion in the scientific community about why these gender differences in pain exist.

“While most explanations concentrate on biological mechanisms, such as genetic and hormonal differences, it is becoming increasingly clear that social and psychological factors are also important,� said Dr Keogh.

One example of this is the different strategies men and women use to cope with pain. Whilst women tend to focus on the emotional aspects of pain they experience, men tend to focus on the sensory aspects, for example concentrating on the physical sensations they experience.

“Our research has shown that whilst the sensory-focused strategies used by men helped increase their pain threshold and tolerance of pain, it was unlikely to have any benefit for women,� said Dr Keogh.

“Women who concentrate on the emotional aspects of their pain may actually experience more pain as a result, possibly because the emotions associated with pain are negative.�

To carry out this research, scientists asked volunteers to place their non-dominant arm in a warm water bath (37 degrees centigrade) for two minutes before transferring the hand into an ice water bath maintained at a temperature of 1 - 2 degrees centigrade.

The cold pressor tank allows researchers to monitor the pain threshold (the point at which volunteers first notice the pain) and pain tolerance (the point at which volunteers can no longer stand the pain). An upper time limit of two minutes is used in these kinds of studies.

Other research by the Pain Management Unit has looked at the relationship between gender differences in anxiety (http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/linkfwd.php?type=kw&link=http://www.patienthealthinternational.com/ncm.aspx?type=article&param=501559) sensitivity and pain. Anxiety (http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/linkfwd.php?type=kw&link=http://www.patienthealthinternational.com/ncm.aspx?type=article&param=501559) sensitivity is the tendency to be fearful of anxiety (http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/linkfwd.php?type=kw&link=http://www.patienthealthinternational.com/ncm.aspx?type=article&param=501559)-related sensations (e.g., rapidly beating heat), and seems to be important in the experience of pain sensations. In a study of 150 patients referred to a hospital clinic with chest pain, researchers discovered that the factors that predicted pain in men and women were different.

Researchers believe that it is the fear of anxiety-related sensations and an increased tendency to negatively interpret such sensations, both of which are more predominant in women than men that influences women’s experiences of pain.

“Chest pain is associated with coronary heart disease, angina (http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/linkfwd.php?type=kw&link=http://www.patienthealthinternational.com/ncm.aspx?type=article&param=501253) and heart attacks, so it is understandable that chest pain is a cause of great anxiety (http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/linkfwd.php?type=kw&link=http://www.patienthealthinternational.com/ncm.aspx?type=article&param=501559) for patients and that anxiety (http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/linkfwd.php?type=kw&link=http://www.patienthealthinternational.com/ncm.aspx?type=article&param=501559) has an important role in the experience of chest pain,� said Dr Keogh.

�This research is also consistent with studies that suggest that men and women experience chest pain in different ways and that, compared to men, women can sometimes report more intensive pain and nausea.�

Another study has shown that interdisciplinary approaches to pain management may have different effects on women than men.

Working with the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases in Bath, researchers from the Pain Management Unit carried out assessments on 98 patients in chronic pain as they went through a pain management programme involving physiotherapy, psychological treatments and occupational therapy.

Whilst both men and women exhibited a significant reduction in pain intensity both during and immediately after the programme, three months later women reported the same levels of pain as pre-treatment, whereas men’s remained the same as immediately post-treatment. Interestingly, there were improvements in disability, in both sexes, which were maintained at follow-up. This suggested that there may also be important differences in pain experiences and improvements in disability.

“Gender can be profitably examined as a potential predictor of pain experience, and in particular, pain following treatment, but it is too early to say exactly how gender-specific interventions can be tailored to address these potentially important differences,� said Dr Keogh.

“However, evidence is certainly converging to suggest that accounting for greater differences may increase the overall effectiveness of treatments.�

Reference URL
University of Bath, UK (http://www.bath.ac.uk/news/articles/releases/paingender040705.html)

SOURCE:
http://www.alphagalileo.org (http://www.alphagalileo.org)

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=26934

[cruiser]

Having witnessed childbirth, I'm glad we won't have to put that to the test.

[abdulhakeem]

Having witnessed childbirth, I'm glad we won't have to put that to the test.well, yes i was astonished too but as it is said in the bbc article: more research need to be done on this...

though it could be that at the time of childbirth there might be different pain killing hormones i.e. a release of endorphines or any other thing that might work similar to narcotica.

i do know that massai men in and around kenia have the ability to endure all kind of pain probably by some type of self-hypnosis or something like that.