Women feel pain more intensely than men, according to a study recently conducted at Stanford Hospital and Clinics, which surveyed 11,000 men and women.

Researchers studied pain levels in both sexes by analyzing electronic medical records of patients’ reports of pain across a large range of different diseases, according to a Jan. 23 article in Time magazine. The research found a distinct gender-driven difference in how much discomfort patients said they felt.

Health care professionals asked patients to rank their level of pain on a scale of zero to 10, zero meaning no pain and 10 meaning the worst pain imaginable, according to the article.

When analyzing the results, researchers found most responses signified medial pain levels, but women overall were more likely to indicate higher levels of pain than men, said Atul Butte, lead author of the study and chief of systems medicine in the department of pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine, according to the article.

The results were consistent across all diseases, which means women feel pain more intensely than men in every aspect no matter what the ailment is, according to the article.

‘We completely wouldn’t have expected such a difference across almost all disorders, where women were reporting a whole pain point higher on the 0-to-10 scale than men,’ Butte said in the article.

Students at SU agreed with this study, but unlike Butte, it did not surprise them.

‘I think we feel more pain than men do because our bodies are more fragile than men,’ said Megan Barnes, a freshman political science major. ‘I think also because men are stronger and can build muscle easier than we can, they have a stronger pain tolerance. Also, I think feelings are involved, so women feel pain higher. We are emotional creatures.’

According to the study, some explanations of why there is a gender difference with pain tolerance have nothing to do with biology, but rather with cultural stereotypes. For example, because men may feel pressured by our cultural norms to be tough, they may report feeling less pain than they really do, especially when asked by a mostly female nursing staff, according to the article.

‘Women experience more pain because it has to deal with us mentally, too,’ said Diana Acebedo, a freshman social work major. ‘Once it’s mental it becomes physical, so we would experience pain on a higher level.’

The study also explained that one reason for a difference in gender pain tolerance has to do with the differing hormones in men and women. Studies have shown estrogen in women can actually help to ease pain women experience because it dampens the activity levels of pain receptors. But when women experience low levels of estrogen during their menstrual cycle, they become more sensitive to pain, according to the article.

‘The gender bias would make sense because if there is a correlation between increase hormones such as estrogen, then when a woman’s body is flushed with estrogen in specific moments, she will be able to tolerate more pain,’ said Dan Liddick, a senior biology major. ‘Since women experience fluctuation in those hormones and because men usually have a plateau level of hormones, then yeah, the gender bias makes sense. I am not surprised.’

Butte mentioned in the article he hopes to further study pain and suggests this study may help doctors better address the actual pain patients may be experiencing, which would make treatment on pain more successful.

knvanbru@syr.edu 

Published on February 6, 2012 at 12:00 pm