The NIH Revitalization Act, signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1993, requires that both women and minorities be included in NIH-funded clinical research. In 1996, the NIH established its Pain Research Consortium with representatives from all NIH divisions. Members of this group, plus other NIH centers and offices, sponsored the April 1998 conference on gender and pain. While most of the conference talks focused on basic understanding of the pain process, some offered insight into specific illnesses that patients and physicians can use today. More attention to gender issues should help ease pain for persons of all ages and both sexes.
Women use more varied coping strategies.
Women over age 50 have more silent heart disease than men do. One in 5 women and one in 17 men have migraines. Medications that relieve pain in one sex may not benefit the other. This still mysterious disorder affects 9 times more women than men. Severe pain may strike both sexes equally.