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With the consensus that women and men respond to pain differently, We all know the adage about women dealing with pain better than men. However, there’s now a consensus among researchers that women and men respond to pain differently at the cellular level, although there’s no universally accepted theory as to why.
Research bias
One thing we can be sure of, though, is that until very recently, many pain studies involved only men. One theory for the widespread exclusion of women from clinical research is that hormonal fluctuations continuously impact their pain sensitivity. In the past, it was difficult for researchers to factor in those changes, leading to the widespread exclusion of female study participants. Unfortunately, the predictably skewed data obtained means that some pain drugs may be more effective for men than women.
Among the first to highlight this problem was neuroscientist Dr Ted Price. Writing in Science Daily back in 2018, he said:
“Those running clinical trials for the last five years have been frustrated because the preclinical results don’t come through in the clinical studies. The cause of this problem, potentially, is that up until recently, many of the preclinical investigators were just using males. Then, in the clinical trials, human participants are primarily female because more women suffer chronic pain than men.”
And more recently, as part of their focus on women and health, The Lancet published Gendered pain: a call for recognition and health equity.
Gender-specific drugs for pain
With increasing recognition of gender inequality in pain, there’s more pressure than ever to address the problem. Gender-specific drugs for pain – or at least gender-specific variations of the same medications – seem inevitable. But even with determination and generous funding, clinical research has a habit of moving at a glacial pace. So, we are likely many years from this becoming a reality.
Ironically, the preponderance of available data for men means it’s likely we will see male-specific pain drugs long before they are available for women.