Despite the popular imaginary that asserts that women tolerate pain better than men, a study led by researchers from the University of Malaga that analyzed the differences between men and women in relation to their experience with chronic pain, revealed that such differences are minimal.
On the contrary, it is the resilience of a person – the ability to overcome adverse situations – that determines the high or low capacity to accept pain, since this quality is related to the set of characteristics that provide the individual with resources to cope chronic suffering.
The work was carried out with a sample of 400 patients with chronic spinal pain (190 men and 210 women) and the results indicate more similarities than differences between both sexes .
According to Carmen Ramírez-Maestre, lead author and researcher at the University of Malaga: “The most resilient people tend to accept their pain , that is, to understand that their ailment is chronic and stop focusing their efforts on making the pain disappear to overturn their energy to achieve a more satisfactory life, despite the pain. Patients who accept it report perceiving a lower intensity of pain, have a higher level of daily activity and a better state of mind “.
Fear of pain
On the other hand, the data from the work, which was published in The Journal of Pain , showed that patients with more fear of pain experience higher levels of anxiety and depression. “However, only in the sample of men this fear is related to a greater intensity of pain, this being the only difference found based on the sex of the patient”, concludes the author.
