The same old story: men are whingers

The usual 'Battle of the Sexes' waffle has obscured the most important findings in a recent Australian study on pain.

The headline news from the study of 100 heart-surgery patients at Deakin University, Victoria found that men wanted more pain-killing drugs than women. All patients would have experienced about the same level of pain in the first 24 hours after the surgery but while, on average, the women stayed on morphine for 12 hours, the men kept taking it for 17 hours.

Professor Mari Botti, told The Australian 'there is no doubt that women who have experienced childbirth tend not to rate their pain up the scale.' But she also pointed out that nursing was still a female-dominated profession. 'Perhaps there is a bit of expectation that males will tolerate pain less well,' she said.

She concluded: 'But we have no evidence that males are any better at communicating pain or any more pathetic than the women.'

Nothing very conclusive there then.

Whether men are more or less sensitive to pain than women is not really that important anyway. Who cares? The less well-reported part of the study is that research into 300 patients showed that many of them — men and women - endured pain that could easily be treated. 'You should expect to be pain-free after surgery and not many people expect that, including physicians,' Mari Botti said.

It could be that people are worried about becoming addicted to painkillers — unlikely — or that they feel they need to feel the pain in order to tell whether they are becoming better or not.

Part of the problem was the failure of patients to communicate their pain levels to their physicians, according to Mari Botti. 'A lot of people think if nurses aren't asking, you shouldn't be asking. Nurses think patients should initiate pain interactions and patients think nurses should be so there is no communication.'

She called for a greater focus on pain management so patients knew it was all right to ask for pain-relief.

The real headline here should have been about needless post-op pain but that's just not as interesting as men are wimps. (Notice also the size of that survey — just 100 people — whereas as the broader study was three times the size.)