'Women report more pain than men'

Researchers at the Stanford University reviewed medical records of more than 72,000 patients and found that, overall, women tend to report severe pain almost 20 percent more than men.

Women reported more intense pain than men in 14 of 47 disease categories while their male peers did not report any such pain in any category.

The differences between the sexes were notable in circulation, arthritis, respiratory and digestive problems.

Because pain is subjective, the study cannot determine whether it is actually experienced more intensely by women or whether they report higher pain or communicate better with their health care providers about the feeling.

In addition, the fact that women report more pain overall does not necessarily mean they have more or less tolerance of pain than men, said lead author Dr. Atul Butte.

Meanwhile, some other experts suggest that women might feel more pain due to some biological, psychological or social differences.

Previous investigations also showed that women are more likely than men to seek medical care, and they're less shy about telling doctors how much pain they're in, the researchers wrote in the journal of Pain.

“Whatever the reason, I think it's important to be aware of this pain discrepancy between men and women and look into it further,” said co-author Linda Liu.

Future studies, on both people and animals, should analyze their results to see whether sex differences in pain may be present, Liu suggested. Many studies on animals do not include females, or fail to report the sex of the animals studied