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Women suffer more pain than men across the whole body, major global study finds (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 6 days 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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[–] 28 points 6 days ago (13 children)

"It found women’s self-reported pain across 11 bodily sites – head, face, neck or shoulder, foot or ankle, hand or wrist, elbow, chest, back, stomach or abdomen, hip and knee – was higher than for men."

Self report, not really all that useful. Could be anything from "women experience more pain" to "women are encouraged to speak up about pain" to "women are less inured to pain". I'm afraid it's a bit clickbaity.

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  • [–] 4 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

    Self report, not really all that useful.

    Why not? Pain is a subjective experience. If someone experience high levels of pain consistently, that is reason to do something about it. Someone else may experience less pain for the same cause, but that doesn't invalidate other experiences. In the end it's about helping people and making their lifes better.

    Although for such studies it would be good indeed to factor in socialisation effects. If men are raised to suppress expressing pain when they're in pain, while women are not, that might bias the results.

    Do we have a non-invasive method for objectively measuring pain?

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  • [–] 4 points 5 days ago (5 children)

    Ever get that weird pain in your chest when you stretch or something? I can't tell you how many phantom pains like that I get and ignore but also forget

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  • [–] 1 point 5 days ago (3 children)

    That's actually growing pains and eventually stops

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  • [–] 2 points 5 days ago (2 children)

    Spoiler - it reappears in your 40s

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  • [–] 3 points 5 days ago (3 children)

    I don't see how you can do a study about pain without self reporting. No one can say how much pain another person is feeling. Thats why the hospital has that face ruler to get you to give them a number.

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