Do women experience more pain than men?

oneiorosgrip · 2012-07-09T17:25:20+00:00

Men have been socialized to be more stoic, with some societies regarding pain endurance as a sign of virility.

I think this really sums it up. As long as this is true, we aren't going to know whether men or women feel more pain. We know women pay attention to pain in ways that are discouraged in men, so we cannot accept any anecdotal evidence on pain, as personal perception and measuring of pain may be no indication of what is physically occurring - the transmission of signals from nerve endings to the brain - but only an indication of what is mentally occurring - the processing of those signals and decision to react, how to react, or to not react.

I'd put my money on us both getting the same nerve-ending signals and the communication to the brain when damage or other discomfort occurs, but the two sexes processing and responding to that information differently, with variations among each sex, as well.

EpicJ · 2012-07-09T15:16:13+00:00

I thought most men and women feel about the same amount of pain though some women who have had children can have a slightly higher threshold, thouh I am basing that off one episode ofmythbusters so I'm no expert.

piar · 2012-07-10T00:03:24+00:00

Men have been socialized to be more stoic, with some societies regarding pain endurance as a sign of virility.

Women have also been socialized to express things that are troubling them, such as pain. Women have been socialized to be help-seeking. Men have been socialized to be providers, not receiving help but giving it. Just a few more social biases that make an objective measure of gender-based pain tolerance difficult/impossible to obtain. Frankly, I'm not even sure what good it does for society to know if a gender can handle more pain than another.

Title	Do women experience more pain than men?
Author	[deleted]
Upvotes	1
Comments	4
Date	July 9, 2012 3:04 PM UTC (14 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/w9tmd/do_women_experience_more_pain_than_men/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/do-women-experience-more-pain-than-men.1018296 https://theredarchive.com/post/1018296

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