Your health:

Women have the X-factor

Here’s a question that will cause some controversy in the household: who has the higher pain threshold? Men or women? Go…

The gender debate has been discussed, disputed and deliberated in its many form for centuries. In fact you could even link it back to Adam and Eve several thousand years ago.
The men vs women pain debate is still on-going and was discussed at the European Federation of IASP® chapters (EFIC) congress in Hamburg just last week.

More than 4,000 experts from all over the world gathered to discuss the latest developments in pain research and therapy for the different genders. It seems it has been proved that men and women suffer differently when it comes to pain. Not only do both genders experience different pain thresholds, they also respond differently to treatment. This was what happened at the congress in Hamburg: a call for the end of unisex medicine.

And as well as we women experiencing pain less, some other recent research found that women may have stronger immune systems all because of a single chromosome, our Xtra X chromosome. This could explain why women tend to live longer than men.

So who does feel the most amount of pain? Dr Oras who attended the congress said that women tend to lament about their pain, which usually aches for a shorter time but is more intense than the pain men feel. It was also said that men do not complain. I’m not so sure that ‘fact’ is true. Anyone heard of man-flu being complained about on more than one occasion?

Dr. Alabas carried out an investigation, with her team, into the relationship between sex-related stereotypic attributions of pain and experimentally-induced ischemic and mechanical pain in 51 healthy participants and revealed that one of the main reasons for the difference in pain thresholds between men and women is the universal impact of gender roles on pain responses.

The demand now is for adjusted treatments for men and women so that they are able to deal with the different responses their bodies have when it comes to pain.

I’m sure many women would invite men to give childbirth a go as an effective test of pain thresholds but if the information is accurate, perhaps men wouldn’t moan anyway?



Are women really tougher than men? Read news report on the genetic basis of man-flu.


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

“And as well as we women experiencing pain less,”
- Women actually experience pain more.

“some other recent research found that women may have stronger immune systems all because of a single chromosome, our Xtra X chromosome. This could explain why women tend to live longer than men.”
- No actual proof of this. Real science does not support the whole “X-chromosome is superior, Y-chromosome is inferior” thing. It explains nothing. Back in the 50’s men and women only had a 1 year difference because men took on much more hazardous jobs back then. They still do today, but they do it even more now and there is also much more medical research and aid provided for women than men. You think that might have something to do with the fact that women live longer? Oh no, of course not. You trust fake science instead that claims the X-chrom is somehow “superior”, which it isn’t.

“I’m not so sure that ‘fact’ is true. Anyone heard of man-flu being complained about on more than one occasion?”
- It is true, women complain more for EVERYTHING. I’ve never heard a man complain about the ‘man-flu’ (which doesn’t even exist).

Also, I read the link you posted about the “man-flu” being genetic and it’s just more BS. The man-flu is purely a myth and has no genetic reality. Women don’t have stronger immune systems because of an extra X-chrom either, that’s just bad science. Maybe it’s because most medical research and aid is directed mainly towards WOMEN and their health (look at how many things there are on breast/cervical cancer compared to testicular/prostate cancer), I doubt it’s because of a chromosome or something ‘genetic’.

Mingtian said...

“And as well as we women experiencing pain less,”
- Women actually experience pain more.

“some other recent research found that women may have stronger immune systems all because of a single chromosome, our Xtra X chromosome. This could explain why women tend to live longer than men.”
- No actual proof of this. Real science does not support the whole “X-chromosome is superior, Y-chromosome is inferior” thing. It explains nothing. Back in the 50’s men and women only had a 1 year difference because men took on much more hazardous jobs back then. They still do today, but they do it even more now and there is also much more medical research and aid provided for women than men. You think that might have something to do with the fact that women live longer? Oh no, of course not. You trust fake science instead that claims the X-chrom is somehow “superior”, which it isn’t.

“I’m not so sure that ‘fact’ is true. Anyone heard of man-flu being complained about on more than one occasion?”
- It is true, women complain more for EVERYTHING. I’ve never heard a man complain about the ‘man-flu’ (which doesn’t even exist).

Also, I read the link you posted about the “man-flu” being genetic and it’s just more BS. The man-flu is purely a myth and has no genetic reality. Women don’t have stronger immune systems because of an extra X-chrom either, that’s just bad science. Maybe it’s because most medical research and aid is directed mainly towards WOMEN and their health (look at how many things there are on breast/cervical cancer compared to testicular/prostate cancer), I doubt it’s because of a chromosome or something ‘genetic’.

Stacey Collins said...

Thanks for the comment, Mingtian.

There is evidence to suggest that the research is correct about the X chromosome although I did write ' women MAY have a stronger immune system' which insinuates that there is also research which contradicts these findings.

I find your argument about men having more hazardous jobs interesting. I think now we're in the 21st century it is appropriate to comment that both men and women can have equally hazardous jobs, police officers for example. However, the average life expectancy for men is 78; this is several years after retirement and there have been arguments that the reason women live longer is because of iron deficiencies and also as put across in the article- the extra X chromosome.

On your comment re men never complaining about man-flu, although I was being ironic about its existence in the article, I have heard plenty of men complain about 'a bad bout of man-flu'.

And lastly, I agree that more medical research and aid should be directed at men. Whilst I do think that this is improving, I believe that there should be an introduction of PSA tests for men.

Thanks again for the comment. It's always interesting to hear our reader's thoughts.

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