Do Women Have a Higher Pain Threshold? A Look at How We Respond to Pain

Women are resilient because they face gender-specific challenges every day, but there are still a few areas where people question the differences between cisgender men and women. Pain tolerance is a common subject that brings divided opinions. Do women have a higher pain threshold? Here’s a closer look at how we respond to pain.

Do Men Have a Higher Pain Tolerance?

Pain is a subjective experience, but researchers have begun to wonder if there’s a biological way men and women interpret those experiences. Due to toxic masculinity standards, men are under significant societal pressure to face pain without complaint. Is there any truth behind that provocation?

Researchers have found that higher testosterone production in rats dulled their pain receptors, allowing them to undergo greater pain stimulation without being affected. This finding led to the medical community creating testosterone treatments for chronic pain in individuals with long-term histories of opioid addiction.

Why Do Females Have a Higher Pain Tolerance?

You’ve likely heard that women have a higher pain tolerance because they deal with monthly menstrual periods and the potential to give birth. It can boost your self-esteem to hear that if you experience intense cramping every month, but it may not necessarily be true.

Due to ethical testing laws, there’s limited research on pain receptors in humans. However, a recent article published findings that female study participants demonstrated higher ongoing pain tolerance when experiencing discomfort related to higher temperatures.

Comparisons of Different Surgery Results

Knowing how men and women experience pain can help determine how to prepare for upcoming medical procedures. These are a few surgeries where there was a clear difference in patient post-op experiences with continual, long-term discomfort.

1. Umbilical Hernia Repairs

Hernias are common medical conditions in both men and women. Women undergoing an umbilical hernia repair are more likely to feel their mesh in the first few weeks or months after their doctor discharges them. This may relate to how women experience discomfort within their bodies.

Talk with your doctor about a no-mesh solution if you’re concerned about an upcoming umbilical hernia surgery. They may recommend it if you only need a minor repair. No-mesh surgeries also reduce abdominal tension, which lowers your chances of recurring surgeries to fix or replace the mesh later in life.

2. Hip Replacements

Most people who need a hip replacement are retired, so their age may challenge their recovery. A recently published study revealed that women have biomechanical factors that improve their pain tolerance and ability to walk faster than male participants.

Even though most women need to return to their doctor multiple times to do something as simple as finding the right birth control, you may not need specialized care after a hip replacement. The female participants could quickly return to walking without limping because they could handle pain much more effectively.

3. Standard Knee Arthroplasty

Other researchers wanted to discover the gender-specific functions that make women have a higher quality of life after undergoing a standard knee arthroplasty (SKA). Even though the female participants in the study were older than their male counterparts, they demonstrated a higher pain threshold that allowed them to recover faster.

Although the specific biological methods that create and maintain that tolerance are still undefined, the study shares a common educated guess with the others above — women can handle pain more easily due to hormonal differences with men.

Who Has Higher Pain Tolerance?

Anyone wondering if women have a higher pain threshold than men should pay attention to upcoming studies regarding pain management. Current research in the field remains limited, but ongoing analyses will point toward more concrete explanations. For now, people can assume women have a higher pain tolerance due to their hormonal fluctuations and biological makeup.

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Beth, the Managing Editor and content manager at Body+Mind, is well-respected in the mental health, nutrition and fitness spaces. In her spare time, Beth enjoys cooking and going for runs with her dog.