Women Report More Pain Than Men; Study

A new study reports that women report suffering more pain than men. Why? Well, there's a little discussion about that.

The research was done by Stanford University, using information collected at two hospitals affiliated with the university. Over 150-thousand pain reports were averaged to put the study together. While pain is a subjective complaint, the research was based on reports using the "0-10" scale, with "0" indicating "no pain" and "10" being "the worst pain imaginable"

The differences in pain noted by women was usually a full point higher than those for men, It may not sound like a lot, but one Stanford professor who worked on the report says that a difference of a single point is usually how doctors determine if pain medication is working. This difference means that women may need different pain treatment than men.

So why do women report more pain than men? One possibility is that women report pain more readily than men. Since most nurses are women, male patients may be embarassed to admit the degree of pain they're feeling. The differences also might be psychological, or related to hormonal issues. No final answers in this matter yet, but more research is likely.

(CBSNews.com)