We all know that men are the wussy sex. They complain about every ache and pain under the sun. Whereas we women just get on with it, we also know what pain is. Considering we have brought mini chiconomista’s into the world, we must have high pain thresholds, surely?! Well sort of.

 

The facts are that women suffer more pain than men. So we can argue that we are more resilient as we reckon we moan less. The Study of Pain in Glasgow found that women generally experience more recurrent, severe and longer lasting pain than men. But interestingly, the study also found that women experience different symptoms for the same condition. Another study in Sweden last year showed that women having a heart attack experienced back and shoulder pain rather than shooting pain in the chest and left arm. Is this the end of the “I’ve got flu” “No you’ve got a cold grow up” argument? Because if we experience pain differently why not illness?

 

The bad news is that it has been found that we are more likely to get migraines, thanks to that lovely monthly cycle of ours. Dr Andrew Dowson, of East Kent Headache Services, said:  “Figures show women are three times as likely to suffer from migraines – a serious, debilitating headache – than men are, which is partly due to their monthly hormonal cycle”

 

But apparently men aren’t willing to admit to migraines. Which begs the question how can we really be sure that we’re having more than them? Apparently men are ashamed of migraines and prefer to say that have a cold. Dowson suggested that men reckon migraines are a sign of weakness and wouldn’t tell an employer. Now this is just daft. Anyone that’s ever had a migraine will know it’s just horrible. You entire face freezes up, your vision blurs, your head beats like a drum, yet they’d rather they said they had a cold? Oh well, they make experience less pain but are somewhat missing in commonsense.

 

But maybe girls, when your bloke is moaning about man flu give him a second thought maybe he really is in pain. And boys as we deal with more aches and pains think twice before you moan!