Do Women Have Higher Pain Sensitivity Than Men?

Women giving birth is a hard blow to men’s testicles. When it comes to pain tolerance, these two examples undoubtedly come to mind.

Enter, Let’s see what science says about this.

At the cellular level, there are intrinsic differences in how men and women process painful stimuli.

First of all, for a person to feel pain, sensory neurons called nociceptors detect painful stimuli and It then sends a signal to the brain for interpretation. Among these painful stimuli; There is mechanical pressure, extreme temperatures and inflammation.

People differ in how they perceive each stimulus and These differences are caused by a variety of factors, including the person’s gender.

Most studies to date show that women have higher pain sensitivity and lower pain threshold than men.

For example, a 2012 study examining how men and women respond to physical pressure found found that women were more sensitive to mechanical pain than men.

In another study, men and women were asked to indicate when they felt a heat stimulus and to rate its intensity. Women feel more heat than men Therefore, it means that the pain is higher.

However, some studies show the opposite.

In 2023, a group conducts a study of 22 adolescents, 12 girls and 10 boys, for thermal pain sensitivity testing. These people are exposed to hot and cold stimuli and They are then asked to rate the intensity of their pain.

This time, men show greater responses to both stimuli than women. Additionally, some research suggests that there is no difference between men’s and women’s pain-inducing temperature responses.

Frank Porreca, a professor of neuroscience, explains that this disagreement among scientists He says that it arises because the criteria used to measure pain tolerance are not very valid. Again, a particular person’s pain threshold and tolerance tend to vary across tests and environments.

Additionally, some studies show that women finds that men are more reliable test subjects and can rate their pain more consistently than men. In summary, it is not clear which gender is more resistant in terms of pain tolerance.

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