In a previous thread here, someone gave a analogy about crunching the toes of a groups of males and females. Finally concluding that there is no real way to tell, as there is too much going on, willpower, mental stuff, who knows.
Anyway, just for fun, if you want to put it into a little perspective in a totally unscientifc way, fill the sink with water and lots of ice, get it as cold as possible, and see who can submerge their hand, arm and up to the elbow for the longest.
Eventually, it starts to hurt like hell, now, I am stubborn and aint gonna let my girlfriend win, so we can say she has more common sense than me, and I have a higher tolerance for pain. whopp whoop
Kind of fun anyway, report results in seconds back here if you like.
The thing about childbirth pain as a female relative described it to me is that it is ultimately a “positive” pain. It has an end, and it is to create something. It has a “good” purpose.
I have read it several times being compared to the equivalent of “having a limb removed without anaesthetic”. But that has a horrible psychological element to it. (Wtf is my leg?!!)
We need to measure exactly what pain is, where we measure it, to find out if pain tolerance varies. Because there are psychological and physiological thresholds in terms of what people can “bear.” Do you measure it on how sensitive people are to pain, or how much they can bear?
I have not been able to notice an appreciable difference between men and women in area of pain tolerance in my work at the hospital. There is just too much individual/psychological variation among patients.
However, like zoot, I have never had a woman faint when I started an IV. That honor has been exclusively male - the bigger and more muscular, the more likely to faint.
Firstly, many obstetrics hospitals in my city no longer allow men to be with their wives during the birth. Why? Because enough men pass out and create too many hassles that the doctors have had enough. Nothing to do with pain, granted, but the whole seeing your SO in pain/blood/etc. seems to affect the guys badly (but my husband was absolutely fine, so YMMV).
Secondly, my godmother suffered third degree burns on her legs before I was born. My mother would go to hold her hand when she had to have baths and the doctor would pull off the dead skin. My mother asked the doctor who coped better on average with that procedure, and he replied that women do. And actually, my godmother would just lay then, grit her teeth and bear it.
But all that this proves is that pain tolerance depends on the individual. It may be that the doctor saw many stronger women than other doctors did.
I consider myself to have a low pain tolerance. But I’m about to have my third baby, I’ve never had pain killers during birth, I have numerous blood tests and such during pregnancy and I’ve coped.
Until we actually DO see a man give birth (and be pregnant for nine months, which I think is the more difficult part :D), I don’t think we can compare such things easily.
You also just can’t compare getting kicked in the nuts to labor and delivery. The type of pain is very different.
Getting kicked in the nuts (or anywhere) is a sudden pain, a sudden shock of intense pain. (although I wouldn’t know from experience).
In labor and delivery (which I do know from experience), the pain isn’t very bad when it starts out, and builds up very gradually over time. Plus the body is releasing adrenelin and endorphins (?) to help you deal with it. And as another poster pointed out, you’re working toward something, a good reward at the end.
And if you’ve been to childbirth classes, you’re prepared for it, and you know exactly what’s going on.
I don’t know about you guys, but I’d rather cut myself with a btucher knife than get a shot. Of course, I’d rather be healthy than cut my self with a butcher knfe, so I still get them. ( ) In any case, little cuts sometimes seem much larger than big wounds. Or is that just me?
Took a day or two - but here they are. Seems there’s a whole category of painkillers of this sort, the kappa-opioids, as opposed to the better known mu-opioids
