A new study has revealed that men experience more pain after major surgery, while women feel more pain after minor procedures.
The study by Dr Andreas Sandner-Kiesling, Dept of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care, Medical University of Graz, Austria, and colleagues found that the influence of gender and sexes is a key issue of today's research in medicine.
However, the researchers found that current literature in the field of preoperative medicine rarely focuses on this question and said that their aim was to analyse a large population to find differences in postoperative pain perception in females and males.
The findings showed that men were 27 percent more likely to experience a greater number of moderate pain episodes after major vascular and orthopaedic surgery, while women were 34 percent more likely to report higher pain ratings after minor procedures, such diagnostic procedures and biopsies.
The scientists added that the gender differences on pain perception are still heavily disputed, both in experimental and clinical fields and their data do not definitely clarify this issue; however, based on their findings it can be presumed that the type (and severity) of surgery may play a pivotal role, as females express higher pain scores after minor procedures, whereas males are more affected after major surgery.