Men and women feel pain in drastically different ways.
Women are more sensitive to pain than men
Analysis conducted in recent decades demonstrates that females suffer pain at higher rates than males with hormonal differences pinpointed as the key reason.
This is because testosterone, which is higher in men, inhibits pain by determining how the body spots and transmits aches and discomfort.
The results are something of a surprise as women often argue that they have a higher pain tolerance because they are capable of enduring childbirth.
Other factors such as stress, childhood trauma and anxiety can also worsen pain.
Jeffrey Mogil, a professor of psychology at McGill University in Canada, told The Hill: "The biological processing of pain, regardless of how much pain is produced, is dramatically sex dependent.
"Different genes are being used in both sexes, different proteins, different cell types, dramatically different biology in each case."