Men vs women: Guess who has the higher pain threshold

It seems the battle to find the stronger sex continues to rage on as a new study reports “no difference between males and females in relation to reported pain intensity”.

A study of more than 10,000 patients at University Hospitals of the Ruhr University of Bochum in Germany found that men feel more pain while recovering from major surgery; although, women are more likely to feel pain after minor surgeries.

However, there seems to be a psychological side to the pain. Dr Beverly Collett said that men were able to “increase their ability to resist pain” when being nursed by attractive female nurses, although no reports on whether the same can be said for women and attractive male nurses.

Overall Dr Edmund Keogh, a pain researcher at the University of Bath said: “There might be a difference between how men and women respond to analgesics, we don’t know yet, we need to have lots more research.”

He added: “Pain is hugely variable, but generally women are reporting more pain in comparison to men.”

Hands down women are the best – no doubt about it!