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Women More Sensitive to Pain Than Men
healthday.com ^

Posted on 04/01/2004 5:43:09 PM PST by chance33_98

Women More Sensitive to Pain Than Men

But study didn't find any racial differences in pain thresholds

THURSDAY, April 1 (HealthDayNews) -- Blacks and whites have about the same sensitivity to pain, but women appear to be more sensitive to it than men.

That's what Duke University researchers report in the April issue of the Journal of Pain.

"Many pain medications are addictive and have unpleasant side effects, so it's important for physicians to be able to understand exactly how much pain their patients are experiencing," lead researcher and psychologist Dr. Tavis Campbell said in a prepared statement.

He conducted the study while at Duke; he's now at the University of Calgary in Canada.

"This research supports well-established findings of slightly higher sensitivity to pain among women compared to men, but revealed no difference between whites and African-Americans," Campbell said.

Previous research and anecdotal evidence have suggested blacks are more sensitive to pain than whites. Campbell suggested pain assessment procedures may be responsible for such racial differences in pain sensitivity.

His study included 76 men and 59 women aged 25 to 45; 72 were black, the rest white. A blood pressure cuff was inflated on the arm of each study participant and left inflated for several minutes. That created an aching sensation. The participants rated their pain according to standard pain rating scales, which gauge both the intensity and the unpleasantness of the pain.


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: health; pain
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To: annyokie
I was the same with a miscarriage. I thought I was just having a stomach flu. My husband was livid.

I still remember 25 years later sitting in a hall in my ratty housecoat waiting for the doctor to see me.

I'm sorry for your loss. :(

Actually, I knew that I was very ill, but I refused to show it in public. I was crying and literally crawling on the floor when my dad picked me up at my apartment at 5:30 a.m., and in the car, I was crying and hyperventilating, but as soon as we got to the hospital, I just pulled myself together.

And I did feel better once they shot my ass full of Demerol! ;D

181 posted on 04/01/2004 8:05:16 PM PST by NYC GOP Chick ("If I could shoot like that, I would still be in the NBA" -- Bill Clinton, circa 1995)
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To: Miss Marple
I must respectfully disagree, Miss Marple. I've seen my father drop boiling oil on his bare foot and it didn't even cause his voice to fluctuate as he limped off to the bathroom to stick it under cold water in the sink.

My brother went to work for three solid days (he's in autobody, very labor intensive) with two busted ribs before the pain finally got to him.

My husband severed off the top of his thumb and called me from work to tell me he would be home "late," had a compressor land on his foot and still worked on it for eight hours (I had to cut the boot off and rush him to the hospital when his foot swelled to twice the size and turned purple), and reached into a still smoking engine to start wripping parts out (that's when I knew I loved him completely).

Their hands are flat and hardened with callouses, speckled with scars, and their limbs are like moving rocks.

What made him cry like a baby? Seeing our son being born, saying our vows at the altar, watching in horror as the ambulance swept me away, the fate of our unborn daughter still hanging in the balance.

Yup, cried a river of tears then.

I'm pretty good with the "big pain" moments. Went through 15 hours of labor with no anethestic (like you). Had six teeth pulled when I was 12 to prepare for braces (too many teeth, not enough mouth space). Sliced my leg open with a box cutter and stapled it shut so I could finish my shift before going to the hospital for stitches.

Little pain, I'm such a baby! Migranes, cramps, endometriosis, knocks the wind out of my sails.

182 posted on 04/01/2004 8:09:02 PM PST by TheWriterInTexas (With God's Grace, All Things Are Possible)
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To: Miss Marple
I've coached both boys and girls soccer teams (it's a high school girls team right now). Anyone with the slightest bit of experience with sports will tell you that boys regularly play with far more severe and painful injuries than girls will. The same twisted ankle that has a boy chomping at the bit to get back in the game has the girls on the bench weeping. Part of it is probably the need for attention that teenage girls have, but a lot of it is the lesser tolerance for pain. When was the last time you've had a girl lie to you to get back out on the field? Heck, a few of them lie to get off. But I've had lots of boys lie to get back out there.

Ever had cracked ribs? I played three ice hockey games last year with 3 cracked ribs on my left side. I know lots of men that have done that or worse. I don't see than happening very often with women...

183 posted on 04/01/2004 8:19:12 PM PST by Charles H. (The_r0nin) (All in all, I'd rather just have the rib back...)
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To: cupcakes
Dear Cupcakes:

I've sprained an arm, tore the support tissue behind both knees, was in a nasty car wreck that required a neck brace, a leg brace, and monitoring for my concussion.

Not one of these things, not all of them put together, hurt as much as labor. After 8 hours of back labor, two hours of regular labor, and another five hours of forced hard labor (sans pain medication), I don't mock anyone's birthing experience. What I do know is I didn't even feel them cutting me, the pain stopped the very instant my son cleared my body, and they stitched me up, again without medication because I didn't need any. After so much darn bloody pain, the pulling of the stitches was laughable in comparison.

Funny thing is, I know it was the most intense pain of my life, but that didn't seem to matter the second I held my son in my arms. Within a few months, it faded to a hazy memory and I was happy to do it again!

Now my emergency c-section, that's another matter all together! I can still feel the darn scar on certain days, two and a half years later!

184 posted on 04/01/2004 8:24:51 PM PST by TheWriterInTexas (With God's Grace, All Things Are Possible)
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To: sonserae
...imagine men being able to stand menstrual cramps and labor pains.

Several studies have rated kidney stones and acute appendicitis as more "painful" than child-birth (the studies rated the pains based on people that had experienced multiple types of pain and ranked them, so it was women who had had both children and kidney stones that said kidney stones were worse). I've had the only two of the three that I can... so I figure I could handle menstrual cramps as well as anyone else...

185 posted on 04/01/2004 8:28:23 PM PST by Charles H. (The_r0nin) (All in all, I'd rather just have the rib back...)
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To: Arpege92
twenty two hours was too long for me.

Beat you by 2 hours and w/a 10 lb baby that broke my coccyx.

This has been a funny thread. I like men and really try not to laugh at them, but sometimes...

186 posted on 04/01/2004 8:42:35 PM PST by radiohead (Over toning the opponent since 2003)
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To: Charles H. (The_r0nin)
Okay...if you can handle menstrual cramps as well as anyone else, I will send mine your way every month. Thank you so much for relieving me of this!!!
187 posted on 04/01/2004 10:13:36 PM PST by sonserae
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To: Miss Marple
So Stinkin' True!
188 posted on 04/01/2004 10:18:25 PM PST by No Fool
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To: radiohead
"Beat you by 2 hours and w/a 10lb baby that broke my coccyx."

OUCH!



189 posted on 04/02/2004 3:21:07 AM PST by Arpege92 (Ketchup and coffee is like Kerry and the truth....neither go well together. - rickmichaels)
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To: cupcakes
I agree! Well said.
190 posted on 04/02/2004 10:07:33 AM PST by Shepster (Hook 'em Horns!!!)
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To: mombonn
I gave birth twice without medication - the second time was back labor.

Me too, but the third time I took the epidural. Gratefully.

191 posted on 04/02/2004 3:03:29 PM PST by truthkeeper
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To: chance33_98
Your post has caused me emotional distress, and I'm having cramps because of it. I demand reparations.
192 posted on 04/02/2004 3:05:14 PM PST by Xenalyte (in memory of James Edward Peck, my grandfather, who passed on 3/23/04)
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To: Miss Marple
In addition, I do remember Ashley Montague's book, The Natural Superiority of Women.

Written by a woman ... nahhh ... no bias there.

193 posted on 04/02/2004 3:06:32 PM PST by Centurion2000 (Resolve to perform what you must; perform without fail that what you resolve.)
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To: chance33_98
Seriesly, since 14 I've been prone to kidney stones. Xena's Mom, who's never had a kidney stone, told me that she understands it's comparable to childbirth. And the woman wonders why I haven't made with the grandkids yet.

However, my sister, who has never had a kidney stone, has three kids. Go figure.
194 posted on 04/02/2004 3:08:54 PM PST by Xenalyte (in memory of James Edward Peck, my grandfather, who passed on 3/23/04)
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To: Shepster
Saying how men would handle labor or menstrual cramps cannot be proven since we do not experience them.

And Dear Lord, we are thankful for that

It's great to be a Man :)

195 posted on 04/02/2004 3:09:14 PM PST by Centurion2000 (Resolve to perform what you must; perform without fail that what you resolve.)
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To: Centurion2000
In all fairness, I should point out that before his demist, Ashley Montagu was a man.
196 posted on 04/02/2004 3:09:43 PM PST by Xenalyte (in memory of James Edward Peck, my grandfather, who passed on 3/23/04)
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To: Centurion2000
Demise, dammit, DEMISE!
197 posted on 04/02/2004 3:10:03 PM PST by Xenalyte (in memory of James Edward Peck, my grandfather, who passed on 3/23/04)
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To: Miss Marple
Sing it, sister! If men had to give birth, we'd be extinct. This study is just silly.
198 posted on 04/02/2004 3:13:54 PM PST by Snowy (Microsoft: "You've got questions? We've got dancing paperclips.")
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To: freedumb2003
Carol Burnett described child birth for men to understand the pain by saying try pulling your bottom lip over your head...that is what childbirth feels like.

Oh, and BTW a woman once told me that Morphine shouldn't be used for pain for a heart attack. Did they use Morphine when you had yours?

(It's a grate pain reliever if you are at 9.5 or above.)

199 posted on 04/02/2004 3:33:56 PM PST by Dr. Zoo (Doctor of Phenomonology)
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To: Centurion2000
Ashley Montague was a man. Look him up on Google.
200 posted on 04/02/2004 3:49:10 PM PST by Miss Marple
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