# Women are better at withstanding pain? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 8, 2009, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-better-at-withstanding-pain/480435 "2009-01-08T22:29:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![XJETGIRLX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9fc29f/32.png) [@XJETGIRLX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XJETGIRLX)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-better-at-withstanding-pain/480435/21 "2009-01-09T15:47:05Z")
Given that there are no true scientifically objective ways to measure pain consistently from one person to the next, I don’t think you can answer this question. We can measure the output of a controlled stimulus (such as pressure applied) and we can measure certain reactions related to a pain response (such as galvanic skin response) but we can’t actually measure pain itself. Until we can, there’s no way to even know that we’re comparing apples to apples from one person to the next. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-better-at-withstanding-pain/480435/22 "2009-01-09T16:42:30Z")
When you’ve had a molor pulled without Novocaine come see me, even a kidney stone isn’t that bad. I think a toothache is one of the worst types of pain, it’s constanst, throbbing and radiating. As well as once it swells the side of your face the pain spreads. The thing about pain is that it’s relative. You have a toothache and then drop a hammer on your foot. See how quickly the toothache pain disappears. Of course it comes back soon. A baby is something most women want so the pain is somewhat modified by the fact at the end you get something for the pain. Really there is no other kind of pain for which you get a reward. When you look back at something it’s never as bad as it really was. This is why babies keep getting born. If it was really all THAT bad, a women (at least now) would quit. I will give you in the old days a woman didn’t always have the choice. ---
**Author:** ![Buran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e57/32.png) [@Buran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buran)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-better-at-withstanding-pain/480435/23 "2009-01-09T16:45:51Z")
> [@XJETGIRLX](#): > > Given that there are no true scientifically objective ways to measure pain consistently from one person to the next, I don’t think you can answer this question. > > We can measure the output of a controlled stimulus (such as pressure applied) and we can measure certain reactions related to a pain response (such as galvanic skin response) but we can’t actually measure pain itself. Until we can, there’s no way to even know that we’re comparing apples to apples from one person to the next. I agree, as people have mentioned above experience of pain can to a large extent be subjective to each individual, what might be intolerable to one person could be shrugged off as not too bad by the next. A few days ago I underwent dental surgery without an anesthetic _(nothing major but still painful)_ because I was going for a meal afterwards and didn’t want that numb tasteless feeling in my mouth. However someone placing a wooden spatula on my tongue is enough to make me beg for mercy and divulge any secret information I may have. The latter isn’t even painful but I find it very _very_ unpleasant. My question however was on the, apparently, generally accepted belief that women as a sex are better at withstanding pain than men. ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-better-at-withstanding-pain/480435/24 "2009-01-09T16:49:12Z")
> [@SmartAleq](#): > > We go through labor voluntarily, sometimes multiple times and quite often with no painkillers of any sort. Get back to me when you’ve tried it and we’ll have another go at this question. Oh c’mon it can’t be all that bad. I mean some women have umpteen kids don’t they Hang on a minute…maybe they _like_ pain ---
**Author:** ![XJETGIRLX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9fc29f/32.png) [@XJETGIRLX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XJETGIRLX)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-better-at-withstanding-pain/480435/25 "2009-01-09T17:11:25Z")
> [@Buran](#): > > My question however was on the, apparently, generally accepted belief that women as a sex are better at withstanding pain than men. ‘Withstand’ is a vague term. Do you mean tolerance? Or are you talking about thresholds? Even if you define which one you’re talking about, using the same stimulus individuals can perceive it differently. You would have to test subjects with the same exact perception of a given stimulus to come to any sort of meaningful conclusion. That said, completely anecdotally I think that women tend to be better at putting up with more frequent, lower thresholds of pain, while men are better at dealing with isolated (but higher thresholds) of pain. I have absolutely nothing to back this up but my own observation and the complains of my husband over tiny aches and pains that I live with on a regular basis. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-better-at-withstanding-pain/480435/26 "2009-01-09T17:14:08Z")
Estrogen may play a role in dampening the pain of childbirth, says [a study](http://abcnews.go.com/technology/Story?id=97662&page=3) on [ABCnews.com](http://ABCnews.com). > [@](#): > > “When estrogen levels are high, the brain’s natural painkiller system responds more potently when a painful experience occurs, releasing chemicals called endorphins or enkephalins that dampen the pain signals received by the brain,” the Michigan team reported. “But when estrogen is low, the same system doesn’t typically control pain nearly as effectively.” This mostly coincides with what I’ve read elsewhere. Other studies I’ve read also suggested men handled sudden acute pain better than women (eg, hitting your thumb with a hammer) but women handled long-term chronic pain better (eg, degenerative bone disease). The basis for the latter conclusion seems to be that women suffer from more chronic-pain diseases such as osteoporosis without reporting it to their doctors, while men complain of all those chronic aches and twinges early enough for treatment. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-better-at-withstanding-pain/480435/27 "2009-01-09T17:15:24Z")
> [@chowder](#): > > Oh c’mon it can’t be all that bad. > > I mean some women have umpteen kids don’t they > > Hang on a minute…maybe they _like_ pain I’m pretty sure they have done research on this… most women minimize the pain of childbirth after the fact because they need to rationalize it to justify the reward. It’s not that it wasn’t all that bad–it certainly was–it’s that they remember it as having been less painful because the joy that immediately follows childbirth takes immediate precedence. Sort of the way a happy couple will view their first date through rose colored glasses while an unhappy couple will remember everything that was wrong from the beginning–a happy woman who has given birth is usually dismissing or forgetting the true intensity of her painful birth experience. (This is all from\* Stumbling on Happiness\* by Daniel Gilbert, social psychology book about how inaccurately we perceive past and future emotional states.) ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-better-at-withstanding-pain/480435/28 "2009-01-09T17:26:42Z")
> [@Fish](#): > > Estrogen may play a role in dampening the pain of childbirth, says [a study](http://abcnews.go.com/technology/Story?id=97662&page=3) on [ABCnews.com](http://ABCnews.com). > This mostly coincides with what I’ve read elsewhere. Other studies I’ve read also suggested men handled sudden acute pain better than women (eg, hitting your thumb with a hammer) but women handled long-term chronic pain better (eg, degenerative bone disease). The basis for the latter conclusion seems to be that women suffer from more chronic-pain diseases such as osteoporosis without reporting it to their doctors, while men complain of all those chronic aches and twinges early enough for treatment. Well, that opens a whole 'nother kettle of fish, in that doctors have their own biases, and may treat male and female patients differently. Gynecologists are notorious for refusing to believe or respond to their patient’s subjective reports of pain. I’m not much of a whiner, but even I have been told outright, “Oh, it’s not that bad.” or “It doesn’t hurt, it’s just discomfort.” or “That’s not pain, that’s just a little pressure.” So I’ve stopped reporting pain as a symptom when it’s a gynecologic issue. Not because the pain has stopped, but because I’m sick of hearing it’s not real. ---
**Author:** ![XJETGIRLX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9fc29f/32.png) [@XJETGIRLX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XJETGIRLX)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-better-at-withstanding-pain/480435/29 "2009-01-09T17:31:01Z")
Another related issue is the exclusion of women from medical research studies. Because women aren’t included in most medical research, I think it’s very hard to determine how or even whether women are affected differently than men when it comes to symptoms of any sort (including pain). ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-better-at-withstanding-pain/480435/30 "2009-01-09T17:42:04Z")
> [@ivn1188](#): > > Most women I have talked to that have done both say passing a kidney stone is far worse than having a baby, so let’s raise the bar past labor. Haven’t had a kidney stone. Have had both a baby and a concussion. The concussion was worse. I’d guess that a lot of things are worse. Pity QED’s link didn’t list all of the kinds of pain that were studied. It mentions heat and ‘other kinds of pain’, without explaining the methodology for any of it, really. ---
**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-better-at-withstanding-pain/480435/31 "2009-01-09T17:42:56Z")
I have wondered if this old saw came about because of 1) childbirth and 2) monthly cramps for some women. It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that, in general, women are more frequently in low levels of pain, due to monthly menstration pain. For some women, it’s a little thing, for some it’s a noticable pain. I’ve been both places. So some crabby woman, on hearing a guy complain about a blister, smacks him upside the head and tells him to come back after he’s given birth or had monthly cramps. ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-better-at-withstanding-pain/480435/32 "2009-01-09T17:48:19Z")
**WhyNot** and **XJETGIRLX** , check out that link. They specifically did include women in that study and they tried to compensate for the self-reporting bias to give women and men equal (dis)incentive to report pain. And I’m not saying doctor biases are correct; I’m saying that’s where other reports get their information. Other studies I have read use an injection technique, injecting saline into soft tissue to provide a sensation of pain; I think those studies used some kind of CT or MRI scan to detect and quantify pain sensation. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-better-at-withstanding-pain/480435/33 "2009-01-09T17:49:43Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > Well, that opens a whole 'nother kettle of fish, in that doctors have their own biases, and may treat male and female patients differently. Gynecologists are notorious for refusing to believe or respond to their patient’s subjective reports of pain. I’m not much of a whiner, but even I have been told outright, “Oh, it’s not that bad.” or “It doesn’t hurt, it’s just discomfort.” or “That’s not pain, that’s just a little pressure.” > > So I’ve stopped reporting pain as a symptom when it’s a gynecologic issue. Not because the pain has stopped, but because I’m sick of hearing it’s not real. Don’t get me started…:mad: ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-better-at-withstanding-pain/480435/34 "2009-01-09T19:31:22Z")
> [@SmartAleq](#): > > We go through labor voluntarily, sometimes multiple times and quite often with no painkillers of any sort. Get back to me when you’ve tried it and we’ll have another go at this question. I was going to respond here, but it seems more appropriate for the pit: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=10671563](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=10671563) ---
**Author:** ![ShadowFacts](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shadowfacts/32/2934_2.png) [@ShadowFacts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShadowFacts)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-better-at-withstanding-pain/480435/35 "2009-01-09T19:47:15Z")
One more anecdote: I got a kidney stone, and it was absofuckingamazingly painful. When I was talking to my Mom and Aunt about it (they both also had kidney stones and kids), they told me that the stones were worse than childbirth. Excuse while I go drink a lot of water, so I never have to go through that again… ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-better-at-withstanding-pain/480435/36 "2009-01-09T20:22:52Z")
> [@ivn1188](#): > > Most women I have talked to that have done both say passing a kidney stone is far worse than having a baby, so let’s raise the bar past labor. I did a poll - I think maybe it was here on SDMB - asking women who have done both whether passing a stone or the next generation is more painful. IIRC the score was 17 saying the stone hurt more and 0 saying the kid hurt more. This is just speculation, but, I think childbirth wouldn’t be such a milestone in pain tolerance because, for one thing, it’s normal. It’s not a disease. And, for another thing, to some degree the survival of our gene pool would seem to depend on women being willing to do it a second time (though in fairness it may have been only evolutionarily recently that people understood what caused pregnancy and therefore had some way of trying to avoid it). ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-better-at-withstanding-pain/480435/37 "2009-01-09T21:37:01Z")
My uncle has been shot (army officer, in one of the Indo-Pak skirmishes) and had a root canal. Says the latter hurt a lot more. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-better-at-withstanding-pain/480435/38 "2009-01-09T23:22:38Z")
[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=242494&highlight=kidney+stone](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=242494&highlight=kidney+stone) This is the poll I referenced. (Is navigating to an old thread and then copying the url to paste above, like I did, the right way to refer to it here?) ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-better-at-withstanding-pain/480435/39 "2009-01-09T23:31:01Z")
> [@olivesmarch4th](#): > > I’m pretty sure they have done research on this… most women minimize the pain of childbirth after the fact because they need to rationalize it to justify the reward. It’s not that it wasn’t all that bad–it certainly was–it’s that they remember it as having been less painful because the joy that immediately follows childbirth takes immediate precedence. Whereas men are the opposite - we don’t feel a \*thing \*during childbirth, but man, afterwards, what a pain… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![sunstone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunstone/32/3372_2.png) [@sunstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunstone)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2009, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-better-at-withstanding-pain/480435/40 "2009-01-09T23:55:21Z")
Anecdotal, but based on a person with some credentials in pain. A surgeon friend of mine who also taught in medical school said that his opinion was that males withstand pain in limbs better than do women, while women tolerate deeper abdominal pain better than men. Of course individuals vary in pain tolerance regardless of gender, but this pattern was true in his observations. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-better-at-withstanding-pain/480435.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/women-are-better-at-withstanding-pain/480435.md?page=3)