Sex-based divergence of mechanisms underlying pain and pain inhibition: The female is more sensitive and less tolerant of pain

Sex-based divergence of mechanisms underlying pain and pain inhibition. Jeffrey S Mogil. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, Volume 23, October 2018, Pages 113–117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2018.05.005

Abstract: Whether there are sex differences in pain sensitivity is a topic of enduring interest. This question has essentially been answered, with a clear consensus emerging in the direction of the difference in humans. More importantly, though, there is also much evidence for robust qualitative differences in pain mechanisms between the sexes, in both rodents and humans, predictive of the eventual sex-specific treatment of pain. This review details some of the known differences in pain circuitry between males and females, and asks whether pain is unique in featuring such divergence.