Background & Aims
Historically, the representation of women in pain studies has faced numerous challenges and biases, resulting in a limited understanding of how pain varies across different populations. There is a crucial need to bridge this gap, especially in athlete-centric pain studies, where biases persist despite significant progress in other areas of pain research. Our study aims to address this ongoing bias by exploring potential differences in pain intensity, threshold, and tolerance between male and female recreational outdoor athletes.
Methods
We recruited 181 recreational outdoor athletes (56 skyrunners, 73 hikers, and 52 rock climbers). All subjects identified as male (54%) or female (46%). Participants were asked to report the maximum and average pain intensity during their respective sport events using Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) from 0 to 10. Cold Pressor Test (CPT) was used to determine pain threshold and tolerance, and to record pain intensity during the 20 s intervals of the test. Activity intensity was expressed objectively, as kilometer-effort/hour, and subjectively using NRS. Generalized linear model (GLM) was employed to investigate the relationship between gender and pain outcomes.
Results
We found no significant difference in maximum and average pain intensity, and pain threshold between genders in all three groups of athletes. Controlled for activity intensity and duration, gender was not a significant predictor of maximum and average pain intensity during sport event. Compared to males, female rock climbers had significantly lower pain tolerance (p < 0.01) and higher pain scores at 80, 100, 140, 160 and 180s of CPT (p < 0.05 for all). In hikers and skyrunners, pain tolerance and pain intensity at all time points of CPT were similar between genders.
Conclusions
Our results suggest similar pain perception in outdoor athletes of both genders with the exception of female rock climbers who had lower pain tolerance.
References
Diotaiuti P, Corrado S, Mancone S, Palombo M, Rodio A, Falese L, Langiano E, Siqueira TC, Andrade A. Both Gender and Agonistic Experience Affect Perceived Pain during the Cold Pressor Test. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Feb 18;19(4):2336. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19042336. PMID: 35206523; PMCID: PMC8872125.
Maciejewska-Skrendo A, Pawlak M, Leo?ska-Duniec A, Jurewicz A, Kaczmarczyk M, Ci?szczyk P, Le?nicka K. Can Injuries Have a Lasting Effect on the Perception of Pain in Young, Healthy Women and Men? Sports Health. 2021 May-Jun;13(3):278-284. doi: 10.1177/1941738120953165. Epub 2020 Dec 15. PMID: 33320785; PMCID: PMC8083157
Assa T, Geva N, Zarkh Y, Defrin R. The type of sport matters: Pain perception of endurance athletes versus strength athletes. Eur J Pain. 2019 Apr;23(4):686-696. doi: 10.1002/ejp.1335. Epub 2018 Nov 18. PMID: 30379385.
Presenting Author
Radovanovic Nemanja
Poster Authors
Suzana Bojic
MD
Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care, Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia
Lead Author
Milica Radovic
Department of ICU for Internal Medicine, UCHC Zemun, Belgrade, Serbia
Lead Author
Nemanja Radovanovic
Dr. med.
Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care, University Clinical Centre of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia
Lead Author
Topics
- Gender/Sex Differences