Table of contents:
- Why is everyone's ability to endure pain different?
- The ability to endure pain between men and women is different
- 1. Biological factors
- 2. Social and psychological factors
- Why is women's pain tolerance higher?
He said, pain tolerance, aka people's ability to endure pain, varies. Pain tolerance or threshold is the point when a stimulus, such as heat, causes pain in your body. People with a low tolerance feel pain more easily than those with a higher tolerance.
Women are said to have a higher pain tolerance than men. This is thought to be related to the ability of a woman's body to withstand pain when dealing with menstrual pain and childbirth. However, is that true?
Why is everyone's ability to endure pain different?
The pain arises from the interaction between the nerve tissue and the brain. Nerves transmit signals to the brain, then the brain interprets it as pain so that the body can respond with an evasive reflex.
Differences in a person's ability to endure pain usually depend on these interactions. Several other factors make people's ability to withstand pain vary, namely:
- Age. Elderly have a higher tolerance to pain, but the cause is not known with certainty.
- Gender. Women are known to be more able to withstand pain than men.
- Genetic. Your genes can affect your resistance to pain and the effectiveness of pain medication.
- Chronic disease that changes pain tolerance.
- Psychological disorder, stress, and self-isolation. All three can reduce a person's tolerance for pain.
- Expectations when dealing with sources of pain. For example, the fear of needles can make the pain seem to get bigger.
- Previous experience. For example, people who are used to being exposed to high temperatures may be more able to withstand the pain.
The ability to endure pain between men and women is different
There are differences in the ability of men and women to endure pain. This difference is allegedly related to biological, psychological and social factors.
1. Biological factors
The sex hormones, namely estrogen and testosterone, have an effect on differences in the ability to endure pain between men and women.
During the menstrual cycle, women experience pain / tenderness more often. This pain sensation can appear before, during, or after menstruation.
2. Social and psychological factors
The way men and women respond to pain also contributes to differences in tolerance. Women tend to recover more quickly from pain.
When their bodies are experiencing pain, they are quicker to seek medical help and don't let the pain linger in the body.
Compared to men, women have more ways to manage pain well. They are also more adept at distracting from pain and have more support for coping with it.
Why is women's pain tolerance higher?
Pain is a very subjective thing. What you think hurts doesn't necessarily feel the same to other people.
This is what has become an obstacle in various studies on pain tolerance in men and women.
However, research conducted by Stanford University School of Medicine produces a bright spot.
As it turns out, the reason behind this phenomenon is because women experience more pain than men.
In this large-scale study, study participants from the women group reported greater pain in all disease categories.
From a scale of 1-10, the figures they reported were, on average, one level higher than that of men.
It also makes women more sensitive to pain so they can manage it more effectively. Through this mechanism, women are better able to withstand pain, aka have a higher pain tolerance than men.