117
Women suffer more pain than men across the whole body, major global study finds (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 1 day ago by to c/health@lemmy.world
75 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 4 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

Even so, this is a cultural question, not a healthcare one. While women are treated more poorly within the healthcare system, men are exposed, outside the healthcare system, to "man up", "suck it up", "boys don't cry" and a general attitude that admitting to pain is weakness and unmanly.
There may be an abundance of reporting; I would be willing to bet that male pain is better studied than female pain, because that usually seems to be the case (medical science ignoring female physiology to an almost comical degree). But, the point op was making is that the men in the studies are more likely to lie/downplay their pain because of the culture of toxic masculinity. It's one of the ways men are victims of the patriarchy too.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent