Men and women are at different risks for developing pain. Recent research has shown that a variety of chronic pain disorders are more common in women than in men, Fillingim said. Other studies point out that women report more pain in population-based surveys, and it has been demonstrated in experimental pain studies that women are more sensitive to pain. Women have lower pain thresholds, lower tolerance, and increased sensitivity to painful stimuli, these studies found.
Data suggest that coping is related to both experimental and clinical pain.
Women who catastrophize report more intensity of pain than do women and men that do not catastrophize. Women using passive coping reported more pain than did women who didn't rely on this psychological mechanism. Men, whether they used passive coping or not, did not report significant differences in pain. He and his colleagues found that more clinical pain and lower pain thresholds and tolerance were reported by women whose immediate family members said they were experiencing pain. Men did not show this effect.