## Women feel pain more The cause of the increased sensitivity to pain is the neurohormone [prolactin](https://ul.orna.me/KOge/librarybiomarker?id=68), known mainly for promoting lactation after childbirth. It has often been believed that women experience less pain than men. This is supposedly designed by nature so that women can give birth and not die of pain shock. This has never been clinically proven. Scientists did an experiment on mice of both sexes, some of which were stimulated to release prolactin. The brains of females reacted several times sharper to the pain signal after prolactin release than the brains of females without stimulation and both groups of males. The findings suggest that new pain treatments targeting prolactin suppression would be of great benefit to women suffering from pain syndromes. ## Evidence base To clarify the effect of prolactin on pain threshold in young women, 144 women were examined. The first group included 72 patients with elevated prolactin and 72 patients with normal levels. All of them were prescribed combined oral contraceptives for 14 cycles. The results of the evaluation of the hormonal profile showed that the levels of all hormones, including prolactin, in both groups under comparison were within the age norms. Patients in both groups reported that menstruation was less painful, and headaches, joint pain, and the premenstrual syndrome were less common. "There are about 35 million migraine patients in the United States, and 3 out of 4 of them are women. In patients with fibromyalgia, 9 out of 10 are women; in irritable bowel syndrome, 3 out of 4 are women. If you can help them, it will change their lives," says one of the study's authors, Dr. Frank Porreca. __Sources__: Yanxia Chen et al, The prolactin receptor long isoform regulates nociceptor sensitization and opioid-induced hyperalgesia selectively in females, Science Translational Medicine (2020). DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aay7550