In fact, the research literature shows that there are gender differences. And those gender differences are similar to the differences we see in other areas of health care. For instance, we know that men are less likely to report symptoms of distress than women. So that for many men who are experiencing pain, there's sort of a macho mentality that can result in them not coming to the attention of a health care provider. We also know there are societal and cultural differences that are connected to gender, which might influence, and probably does, the differences in presentation between males and females.
People do walk on broken glass and do sleep on nail beds.
The answer is that you can condition yourself to tolerate painful stimuli. So that while we in pain management have dedicated ourselves to helping people reduce pain, we also want them to appreciate that the experience of pain has a survival function which raises the question as to whether it is really desirable to turn off the pain completely. We also think of chronic pain as being sort of like a false alarm. That is the normal adaptive function of pain is gone amiss. All patients are evaluated by both of us together.