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Women suffer more pain than men across the whole body, major global study finds (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 10 hours ago by to c/health@lemmy.world
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Researchers looked at pain around the world and across the human lifespan, finding steepest rise happens before age 55

Women report suffering more pain than men, a major new global study has found.

That was true for all types of pain the researchers measured, and comes amid continuing concern about the gender pain gap, which means women are less likely to be prescribed the pain relief they need.

Researchers from all over the world carried out “one of the largest harmonization efforts in pain epidemiology to date”. Data was collected from more than 6 million people from 118 countries from 1990 to 2025, and included people from five years old to more than 100.

The research, published in Nature Medicine, looked at how pain, as the leading global cause of disability, was distributed both around the world and across the human lifespan.

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[–] 11 points 8 hours ago (4 children)

I do think women's pain is under-treated, IUD insertion no pain meds, no anesthesia, a lot of GYN procedures that really hurt are done with no help.

The worst pain I have ever felt, though, is still migraine. Not childbirth (I did those unmedicated) not broken bones, migraine is by far the most intense pain I have ever felt and that is not specific to women, though more common in women.

My tattoo artist said men complain, women don't. Not that it hurts us less, we just don't complain. Cultural thing maybe. My husband does complain when his back hurts; I just wait it out. Though if it persisted I'd be more likely to go to the doctor than him.

So maybe some of it is self-inflicted, we don't tell anyone we are hurting, but for God's sake, my gynecologist is a woman she should know that shit hurts!

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  • [–] 1 point 3 hours ago (1 child)

    complain, or share their feelings?

    most guys I know just state how something feels or what is currently bothering them. not complaining, just sharing information

    unless it's some type of serious headache — that shit is debilitating.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 hour ago

    He complains. I would go so far as to say whines, lol. Partly because he can't work out when hurt and lack of exercise makes anyone irritable. I am strong with pain but an absolute whiny baby when sick, a slight cold and I complain, I hate it so much. He hardly notices it - gets a cold about the same frequency I do (maybe once a year on average?) but it impresses him so little he thinks he gets sick less often than I do.

    So it's not that he complains more, just more about physical pain.

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  • [–] 4 points 7 hours ago (1 child)

    On the other hand, I get migraines, but they're not even in the top three worst pain I've even experienced. The worst I've ever experienced is a mystery pelvic pain (yes, I'm also female).

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  • [–] 4 points 5 hours ago

    Until I hit menopause I had no idea that the pain level of a migraine could vary, I have them occasionally still (not many with the steady low dose MHT and no cycles), and mostly they are about like a hangover level of headache.

    Before menopause, they were uniformly at an 11/10, vomiting, crying and such intense pain I got hallucinations. Like I have no idea how one can hurt that bad without it killing you. In labor, I literally thought "well, not as bad as a migraine anyway".

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