Women and men experience pain differently. Recent studies reveal that women, when compared to men, experience:

• more recurrent, severe and longer lasting pain
• 50% higher rates of pain in head, neck, shoulder, knee and back
• twice as likely to experience orofacial pain
• 150% higher rates of migraine headaches
• 4 times as likely to experience fibromyalgia
• up to age 65, more likely to experience pain in multiple regions in the body

Men, on the other hand, experience higher rates of multiple painful conditions, including cluster
headaches, coronary heart disease, gout, duodenal
ulcers and pancreatic disease.

Why the differences?

First, our physiology and our sex hormones differ. Scientists don’t know exactly how androgens and estrogens influence how we perceive pain, but they do know that these hormones