Women don't sense pain in the same way men do

[shubber]

Best comment: "Overall, the paper isn't fantastic. There are some additional experiments and better controls that might have made for a more convincing case." It's so nice not to see science journalism gushing about their misunderstanding of the results.

[farnsworth]

Agreed- I had to read that sentence twice.

Tomorrow on cnn.com: "Scientists say women don't feel pain"

[shib71]

This is how science reporting should be done. Not only does he intelligently explain the core findings of the research, and he also examines its quality. More of this please.

[clint]

We do it every day ;) http://arstechnica.com/science/

[ciupicri]

One of the reasons for which women tolerate pain better than men is that they have to give birth. Even if some women manage to do it without pain killers, it's still not a walk in the park.

[elptacek]

This was my first thought, as well. But after re-reading the article, it's not clear to me that women have a higher tolerance for pain, just that we require two types of receptors to be active to feel relief from morphine, and that the "complex" of proteins fluctuates with the estrous cycle. I can say that certain painful acts in the context of my multiparous experience have resulted in a flood of pain relief from somewhere within my person shortly after the onset of pain. Things that I was not aware my body could tolerate became tolerable. All very strange.

[Archaeum]

That seems plausible (and the conventional wisdom), but I don't think it's a matter addressed in this study, which was rat-based. My understanding is that the difficulty in human birth is largely attributable to extra prenatal development that results in the baby being relatively large. So, even if birth pain is a factor in humans, there must be an additional driving force, a factor on which the research apparently didn't speculate.

[sliverstorm]

Well, to be fair men of the past probably experienced just as much pain- I mean, it seems possible that being impaled with a sword or cut in half with a battle-axe is pretty uncomfortable.

The difference I see is men didn't need to be able to tolerate and survive that pain, 'cause they were dead anyway. Women, on the other hand, really need to be able to survive and cope with the pain of childbirth so they can raise their child.

[icegreentea]

Actually, studies done on pain tolerances shows that a pregnant women's pain tolerance goes up sharply as childbirth approaches, and then drops back down to normal levels after childbirth.

In addition I'm pretty sure I read that on average females have a lower pain tolerance then men. Though it can be changed by training... relatively easily too.

[yequalsx]

During our hunter/gatherer phase it seems to me that men who could feel pain more easily had an advantage in combat against animals. Knowing you're seriously hurt gives you a strong signal to retreat. Being able to withstand pain in the heat of battling an animal might lead to more recklessness and therefore a shorter lifespan.

[ars]

The trouble with your idea is that you could reverse it and it would make just as much sense. (Being able to get injured and still be able to succeed, etc.)

[ptrick]

Slapping your wife is now justified.

[mtinkerhess]

Domestic abuse isn't a subject to make light of.

[kgermino]

It saddens me that you seem to have made this account just to say that...

[danbmil99]

I don't get it -- can I beat my wife, or not?