Which is more painful: childbirth or a blow to the male genitals
Men and women have long been arguing about what is more painful — a blow to the genitals or childbirth. While the verdict may not be in yet, researchers are one step closer to an answer by discovering why a person's gender determines their pain threshold.
Scientists from the University of Arizona (UA) have identified functional sex differences in nociceptors, specialized nerve cells that produce pain, suggesting that men and women experience pain differently, writes the Daily Mail.
For example, there was found that nociceptors in women are more sensitive to a pain-related hormone, while nerve cells in men are unaffected.
Their findings could pave the way for future advances in painkillers such as ibuprofen, which will be applied individually for men and women.
«Until now, the driving mechanisms that cause pain were thought to be the same in men and women,» said Dr. Frank Porreca, director of research at the Comprehensive Center for Pain and Addiction and a professor at the University of California.
«Conceptually, this paper «is a big step forward in our understanding of how pain can occur in men and women,» he added.
Nociceptors are activated when a person is injured, causing a response that causes the person to move away from the source of danger — e.g. , put your hand on the stove or feel a sharp jellyfish sting, writes the Daily Mail.
The team tested how nociceptor cells respond to substances found in both men and women — prolactin, a hormone that promotes lactation and mammary gland development, and orexin B, which regulates sleep. Women's nociceptors were activated when high doses of the hormone were administered, while men's nociceptors had no effect. On the other hand, orexin B made male nociceptors more sensitive, but had no effect on female ones. The team then tried to block prolactin and orexin B.
Blocking prolactin stopped nociceptor activation in women but had no effect in men, while blocking orexin B had the opposite effect.
Dr Porreca, the lead author of the study, told DailyMail.com that the study «does not show that pain is worse in men or women, but rather shows that nociceptors are different in men and women.»
The researchers chose these two substances after examining a separate study that reported that prolactin and orexin B increased the sensitivity of nociceptors.
The researchers hope their findings will help develop more effective pain treatments that can be tailored to gender, rather than a one-size-fits-all solution.
«Different mechanisms of nociceptor activation mean that we can find better ways to prevent their activation specifically in women or specifically in men, to provide optimal pain treatment for both men and women.» and in women,» Dr. Porreca told DailyMail.com.
Modern painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen normalize the threshold for nociceptor activation, but they do not work equally for men and women.
Now that scientists know that there are male and female nociceptors, it means that drugs can be created specifically to reduce orexin B and prolactin levels.
Speaking about his findings, Dr Porreca said: «This provides an opportunity to specifically and potentially more effectively treat pain in men and women, and that's what we're trying to do.»
Existing FDA approval and US drugs of orexin receptor antagonists for the treatment of sleep disorders would make it easier to prevent sensitization to nociceptors.
“We are introducing the concept of precision medicine — taking into account the patient's genetics when developing therapy — into the treatment of pain,” comments Dr. Porreca. “The most basic genetic the difference is whether the patient is male or female. Perhaps that should be the first consideration when it comes to pain management.»
As it turns out, pain thresholds «don't differ much between men and women,» Porreca said. , but these thresholds may be activated by different injuries in men and women.
The researchers' findings may mean there may eventually be a solution to the pain men experience from groin kicks and the effects of childbirth: gender-specific pain medications.