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Anesthetic drugs used in surgery have different effects on women than men.
Recent research in Australia and Sweden show that women take longer to recover from anesthesia and that pain medication given during labor can cause problems for mother and baby after delivery. In a study of 463 surgery patients, scientists at a hospital in Victoria, Australia, found that women regained consciousness faster than men did, but the effects of the anesthesia lingered longer in women. Women also suffered more side effects, including nausea, vomiting, headaches, backaches and sore throats, the BBC News reports. Recovery from anesthesia causes even wider-ranging effects in women who had received injected painkillers during childbirth, Swedish researchers report. Anesthesia appears to affect not only the mother, but the baby as well, since commonly used drugs pass easily across the placenta during labor.