ANSWERS: 18
  • Personally I would have to say that women do. As far as I know, they experience some crazy pain, a couple days each month and just deal with it. Doing that over and over and over again just seems that they should be able to handle pain better than a man can.
  • Working in a hospital environment i can honestly tell you...men are wimps when it comes to pain.....also my partner cut his finger .....cried..went white...clammy and then passed out, i on the other hand broke 3 tarsals and was walking around on it for 2 weeks!....i rest my case m'lord :)
  • Generally speaking, woman would have a higher pain threshold. Not sure how many men could endure childbirth.
  • They used to say that women had to be because they give birth and go through awful pain willingly because the also have the capacity to forget just how intense that pain was. The pain of a bad menstrual cramp has been likened to the worst angina pain in men. Women are more sensitive to pain but they have much more endurance than men have. Women's endurance has been widely studied. They are built to last through the suffering.
  • I'm a pregnant female, I always thought men were "weaker" than women, but I guess it's not like that! Women just know how to deal with pain better, which could lead to people thinking women have a better threshold, but that's NOT what it means. I went to http://www.webmd.com/.../...c-pain-conditions "...Many investigators are turning their attention to the study of gender differences and pain. Women, many experts now agree, recover more quickly from pain, seek help more quickly for their pain, and are less likely to allow pain to control their lives. They also are more likely to marshal a variety of resources-coping skills, support, and distraction-with which to deal with their pain..." "...Research in this area is yielding fascinating results. For example, male experimental animals injected with estrogen, a female sex hormone, appear to have a lower tolerance for pain-that is, the addition of estrogen appears to lower the pain threshold. Similarly, the presence of testosterone, a male hormone, appears to elevate tolerance for pain in female mice: the animals are simply able to withstand pain better. Female mice deprived of estrogen during experiments react to stress similarly to male animals. Estrogen, therefore, may act as a sort of pain switch, turning on the ability to recognize pain..." It was a pretty interesting article.
  • It totally depends on the person. I have a really high tolerance for pain. I cut the tip off my ring finger on accident. It didn't really hurt until the hospital cauterized it to stop the bleeding, and even then I just said ow a bunch of times. I've also had a C-section with my second kid and was up the next day so I could go see him in the NICU. My brother's the same way. He walk over a mile home after breaking his collar bone when we were kids. I don't think it's so much gender based as individual tolerance based.
  • I don't know. I've read that a woman in labor and performing childbirth is the closest thing to death that anyone can get without dying. I may be over-reaching this but I think I have the gist. Women, I think are more accustomed to pain but it odesn't mean that they are toughter or have a higher threshold for pain. Us guys aren't really used to getting hurt and we tend to think in an untouchable manner and surprise is a big thing in getting hurt. Men are merely mentally unaccustomedin that aspect of dealing with pain.
  • I always heard throughout high school and college that women had the higher threshold for pain than men. I even once heard that it is estimated 9x higher than a man's. But I don't have any references, just going off what I was told. But that being said, one must understand that there are different kinds of pain, and different kinds of pain receptors in the human body...it's hard to just use the blanket term 'pain threshold' because this varies SO much dependant on the type of pain and the situation. I don't think that there is a gender difference specifically to pain thresholds, but it's very much an individual thing as well as circumstancial.
  • The best current evidence suggests that women have lower thresholds to all types of pain sensation, and suffer pain for longer periods of time in response to stimuli compared to men (http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/050706_pain_gender.html). It's related to oestrogen and testosterone levels, and the way they affect the physiology of the peripheral sensory nerves. However, the most marked differences between men and women are at the level of the cognitive response. Women are more likely to elicit emotional responses to pain, but are also more likely to be accepting of and passive to painful experiences in certain situations. Men, in contrast, are more likely to react actively and/or violently. It's just the way we're constructed/designed, I suppose. When a man feels pain, evolutionarily, it was likely due to something like a tiger trying to bite his leg off, so I suppose it's natural for the cognitive reaction to be violent/negative. When women feel pain (for varous reasons), it probably wouldn't be biologically favourable or productive for her to react in the same manner, but a strong emotional reaction may serve the purpose of alerting others that something is wrong. The pain of childbirth is probably overestimated (by women) :) Pain score studies put it roughly equivalent to moderate-severe renal colic. Though, I've never given birth (being male), I have had renal colic and kidney stones. I've also, in the past, suffered a gunshot wound which shattered my right humerus. I can tell you, quite confidently, that being shot in the arm is *much* *much* *much* worse than suffering 48 hrs with a large ureteric stone and only paracetamol for analgesia.
  • Pain being an inner, subjective sensation, it is of the the things it is difficult or impossible to measure, as such. Tolerance and acceptance of pain being individual, it is difficult to compare. Individuals can be stoic or hysterical when experiencing pain of some degree. It can be interesting to look at bdsm porn, such as spanking. Severel individuals can be observed undergoing the same treatment, i.e. strokes with same kind of tool with observably quite simialar force, and one will jump and cry out (for real, not acted) while the other carries on a conversation as if nothing was going on. Different tolerance? Sure. But IS the pain actually the same? Now that is more difficult to establish. Skin sensitivity can be different, not only the individual's acceptance. Like some are hypersensitive to light. And a nearly deaf person can tolerate louder noise. You and me can point to the same letters on this page and agree which ones are "blue" and which are "orange". But is our subjectyive experience of "blue" the same?
  • Men have a higher endurance and threshold for pain then woman because woman focus on the emotional pain and men focus on the physical. This was studied and tested at University of Bath. If you need a link to article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4641567.stm
  • I don't have any proof and I am not going to take the time to look for any, no offense but I think it depends on the person. Some woman can handle more pain than some men and some men can handle more than some woman. It all depends on the person. As for a study to prove which gender can I don't know.
  • Women generally have a higher threshold for pain. My bf had a blister and he screamed whenever anything or anyone touched it, but when I have blisters I just pop those bad boys and put my shoes back on. He squeals at any minor pain, such as popping a zit or pulling tangles out of his hair. When he gets a cold, no child with dysentery in Africa could suffer more than he does (sarcasm). I think it's because men don't have to suffer from many painful events in their lives--unless they play sports--while women have monthly menstrual cramps and have to endure childbirth. I read somewhere that women's endurance for pain was stronger than men's.
  • In response to some of the sexist remarks, I know for a fact that women whimper over the littlest of paper cuts and complain more when they have fever. Women have more recurring pains and this have been verified. Men were traditionally hunter/gatherers and fighters. Men works down pits until your head was about to burst, in steel works and in agricuture, painful jobs. You cannot say that Muhammad Ali and Evander Holyfield do not have a brilliant pain threshold. Muhammad Ali was punched by Ernie Shavers, the hardest puncher ever probably, suffering from Parkinsons, on the arms, in the body damaging his kidneys. I would like to see a woman this punishment from female equivilants. I find the notion of a pain threshold 9 times higher absurdly overrated even Max Cady would not be as tough as that.
  • Men in general have a higher pain tolerance and threshold than women, I'm not trying to offend anyone but it's just scientific facts. http://www.eurekalert.org/.../cfta-hpt040903.php
  • I am a nurse and have read many studies on pain and a major part of nursing is evaluating pain and pain management. Men do have more muscle mass (thus making them pysically stronger) then woman but that does not mean they can handle pain better. Pain tolerence is endividual. It can also be cultural and something that is taught. Googoo3 you seem to get very upset over other's opinions. I have seen many cases where men are "big babies" while woman handle the same situation like "a trooper" and vice versa. In the end, pain is how the endividual perceives it, male or female.
  • I honestly think men. From my research ( I got curious too along time ago and looked it up) And it points too the direction of men. For example, when I hurt myself, I chuckle. It's not because I try to chuckle. It just comes out. So, I have two sisters and 1 brother. When my brother was 5 years old, we had a treadmill. He cut his tow (sorry if i spell anything wrong it's 4 a.m. where i am...) off nearly and he was waiting for my mom to get off the phone while he stood there in a poodle of blood. Of course, my mom wanted to get stitches (which he probably should have) but my dad just wrapped his tow up and it healed on it's own. Which i think is amazing. I'm 3 years younger than him so i don't remember any of this these are just from stories. But my sister had to get her gallbladder out. She had to deal with it for 3 years before they realized what it was. I was born with tonsoles that made me un-able to breath when i was laying down. I had my tonsoles for 6 years before they finally looked down my throat. I had to go into surgery within a week while i was awake (Note: I was 6 years old and in kindergarten at the time). I had to sleep in a car seat while I slept or i would have died. My other sister had to have a C section recently for her baby. Now that I have told these stories, hopefully you realize that both men and women have bad pain times and that we never can tell how the other sex feels. But from proven fact as of right now men have a higher pain tolerance. Now the fact that women say they have a higher pain tolerance because they have to give birth is wrong. Scientists are still working on why women can give birth (other than the obvious reasons) due to their pain tolerance. That is the only exception to that fact as far as we know. But then again what can we know if one sex is not the other? So hopefully this answered your question.
  • women, they give birth

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