explain
pain
1
section
25
page
Gender
Differences in pain experiencesmight be due to
reproductive organs and/or societal gender roles. For
example, theymight follow stereotypes: mother or father
roles, womenwearing high heels, menwith beer bellies,
womenwith big breasts, stereotypical job demands,
hobbies or sports played. These differences in pain are
usually caused by different societal roles not different
biology.
There is a popularmyth that females have a lower pain
threshold and tolerance thanmales, at least until females
go through labour, at which time their pain threshold
and tolerance ‘magically’ rises. It ismore likelymany
females will report painmore honestly until they have
experienced labour, at which time they feel ‘obliged’ to be
‘tougher’. There is still a tendency to undermedicate
female pain patients in comparison tomales, which
suggests health professionalsmay ‘psychologise’ the pain
of femalesmore than the pain of males.
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We should also acknowledge that most pain research to
date has been done onmale animals bymale
researchers. Perhaps our understanding of painwill
change when these research conventions change.
Culture
Initiations are a great example of cultural influences
– they often involve severe injury but are rarely
described as painful. Why would pain be a sensible
response when the point of the initiation is to enter
manhood?What about the Easter crucifixions
(voluntary) in the Philippines – little or no pain is
reported. Now, why would pain be sensible when the
point of the crucifixion is to come closer to God?
Many studies
61,62
report differences in
pain thresholds and
responses between
people in different
cultures. For example,
the level of radiant heat
found to be painful to
Mediterranean people is
merely regarded as
warm to northern
Europeans.
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DoMediterranean people have greater reason to consider
radiant heat to be dangerous?
Your painwill never be the same pain as that
experienced by your health professional or anyone
else for thatmatter.
