Gender Pain Gap: New Global Findings Reveal Women Experience More Pain Than Men

A comprehensive global study has established that women report experiencing more pain than men across multiple bodily regions. This revelation highlights ongoing concerns regarding the gender pain gap, which indicates that women often receive inadequate pain relief options.

Study Overview

Conducted by an international team of researchers, this study is recognized as one of the most extensive harmonization efforts in pain epidemiology to date. Over a span from 1990 to 2025, data were gathered from more than 6 million participants across 118 countries, ranging in age from five to over 100 years.

A Focus on Pain Distribution

Published in the esteemed journal Nature Medicine, the research examines how pain acts as a leading global cause of disability, considering its prevalence across various regions and throughout the human lifecycle. Key findings indicate that women reported higher pain levels across 11 specific bodily sites, including:

• Head
• Face
• Neck or shoulder
• Foot or ankle
• Hand or wrist
• Elbow
• Chest
• Back
• Stomach or abdomen
• Hip
• Knee

Particularly significant was the higher incidence of headaches, facial pain, and abdominal discomfort reported by women.

Pain Trends Across Lifespan

The study revealed that both men and women experience the most significant increase in pain before turning 55, with pain levels peaking in or beyond the age of 75. Notably, musculoskeletal issues, particularly back, hip, and knee pain, have shown a general increase with age, suggesting that much of the pain burden accumulates during working-age adulthood.

Global Disparities in Pain

Roughly 40% of participants reported experiencing back pain, while the occurrence of facial pain was comparatively low, affecting only about 2% of respondents. The research also highlighted that individuals living in regions with lower Human Development Indices expressed significantly higher rates of bodily pain in their later years, particularly low back pain.

The analysis demonstrated that high-intensity pain typically peaked around the age of 50, while generalized pain saw its maximum around 70. The authors concluded that while the likelihood of experiencing any pain increases with age, the most debilitating types of pain tend to follow an inverted-U trajectory, escalating in mid-to-late adulthood before declining.

Implications for Healthcare

The authors of the study emphasized a pressing need for healthcare systems to address the under-treatment of women’s pain. They noted that prevalent estimates often focus on clinical diagnoses, potentially overlooking individuals with limited access to healthcare. By analyzing self-reported pain rates, researchers aim to create a more equitable framework for pain monitoring and prevention.

Correlations with Lifestyle Factors

Interestingly, the study found that 18.3% of the global pain burden was attributable to lifestyle factors such as smoking, obesity, and low household incomes. The contributions of these factors varied significantly by region:

• 12.6% in sub-Saharan Africa
• 27.1% in Eastern Europe

Expert Insights

Professor Andrew Horne, director of the Centre for Reproductive Health at the University of Edinburgh, characterized the findings as landmark evidence of the gender pain gap, noting: “Pain also rises most steeply before age 55, during women’s working, caring and reproductive years. It is strong evidence that the gender pain gap is real, consistent, and global. Yet women’s pain is still too often dismissed, under-researched and under-treated.”

Agreeing with this assessment, Professor Rebeccah Slater from the University of Oxford remarked, “The troubling paradox is that women experience more pain, yet their pain is also more likely to be dismissed, diagnosed late, or undertreated.”

Conclusion

This extensive study underscores the urgent need to acknowledge and address the pain experiences of women globally, highlighting the necessity for more personalized pain management solutions and effective research funding to bridge the gender gap in pain treatment.