Why women endure more pain than men

Women experience chronic pain longer, more intensely and more often than men, according to a leading psychologist.

They are also likely to put up with several different painful conditions at once. This can lead to greater psychological distress and greater likelihood of disability, warns Dr Jennifer Kelly.

'Chronic pain affects a higher proportion of women than men around the world,' said Dr Kelly.

'We need to encourage women to take a more active role in their treatment and reduce the stigma and embarrassment of this problem.'

Dr Kelly, of the Atlanta Centre for Behavioural Medicine in the U.S., said women may fell pain more intensely because they have a more emotional response to it than men.

She old the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association-that latest research offers insights into how physicians and mental health providers can better treat women with chronic pain.

Pain is considered chronic when it lasts six months or longer and most medical treatment options have been exhausted.

She said chronic pain conditions that are more prevalent in women than in men include fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis and migraines.

Dr Kelly said hormones may be to blame for these differences and that oestrogen clearly plays a role in conditions such as migraines.

Rates of other painful conditions increase for girls as they pass through puberty, whereas rates for adolescent boys are stable or rise less steeply.

She added: 'Pain perception does vary according to the menstrual cycle phases in women with chronic pain. For example, temporomandibular (jaw) pain, or TMJ, is highest-in the pre-menstrual period and during menstruation.'

As for treating pain, studies have shown that men and women experience different side effects of analgesic medications.

She said there had been studies into whether men respond better to opioid medications, such as morphine, but the findings are 'ambiguous' at best.

Research has also shown that there are different factors involved in response to pain medications, including ' social and psychological'.

At her practice Dr Kelly treats the social and psychological factors in dealing with patients with chronic pain.

She claimed that she had made many observations of how women handle pain differently than men. She said: 'Women tend to focus on the emotional aspects of pain.

'Men tend to focus on the physical sensations they experience.

'Women who concentrate on the emotional aspects of their pain may actually experience more pain as a result, possibly because the emotions associated with pain are negative.'

Dr Kelly said patients with chronic pain, especially women, should be encouraged to take an active role in their treatment and in caring for themselves, such as eating well and getting exercise.

They should also be given psychological support and Dr Kelly advocated coping strategies that are designed to change the thoughts associated with pain.

She added: 'If women can see the pain as something that can be managed and something that they can work with, then they can make more positive modifications in their life and become more functional.'


/Daily Mail/