An argument?

TBH I've never had to convince any lass that it's been a good idea to shag me, it's always been their idea in the first place. Perhaps it's just the types of lasses I've always gone for, who knows?

Turn of phrase. The conversation tends to be of the following..

Her: I've got a terrible headache.
Me: You know sex is apparently good for that, d'you fancy a quick...
Her : <paddington stare> Just get me some aspirin from the kitchen.

Jon

Those are the studies that they're working on now

So there is no solid evidence for the opening statement?

And hence the title "Women suffer headaches more than men" is a spurious statement supported only by anecdote and a silly over-extrapolation of one very limited, very small scale study?

The opening statement that women have more headaches than men was from a different study, the results of which are published in the OP with evidence. I merely hypothesised that perhaps the number of receptors was the reason that women seem to suffer from more pain, more quickly than men. There have been other studies conducted into the nerve clusters of women, I only posted this study as the first of it's kind.

There's plenty of evidence, enough to provide justification for funding the large-scale studies that are going on now, including research carried out which determines that blocking spinal pain receptors in women does little to control the pain they register. Interestingly, when it comes to chronic pain (e.g. Cancer pain) men and women register almost the same level of pain and about the same time.

I never really used to get headaches, but since I was involved in a car accident I get them a lot more frequently (along with pains in the neck).

The other half however, claims never to have had a headache.

I rarely get headaches. Last time I remember having them was when I gave up smoking and that was nicotine withdrawal.

I wonder how many she'll get once you start living together?

"not tonight love, my head is killing........"

Caffeine withdrawal. Worst headaches I ever had in my entire life. Every day for about two weeks...

This study only indicates that females report increased experience of chronic pain. There are several issues with this including:

• The experience of pain is not the same as the occurrence of pain. One can have a pain sensation without real pain stimulus and visa versa.
• The genders may differ in how they differentiate between pain and other physical sensations
• The genders may differ in how they differentiate between physical and emotional events
• The genders may differ in how they report occurrences of pain
• The genders may differ in how they suppress or ignore pain stimulus
• Chronic pain is only one subcategory of pain

The article itself gives some indication of how much of this may purely psychological rather than neurological when it says:



To claim "plenty of evidence", one would surely need to conduct in-depth, large-scale systematic studies of actual emotional, hormonal, physical and neurological differences. For instance, one would need to include in an analysis hard data regarding:

• The density of pain receptors
• The activity of pain receptors
• The transmission of pain stimuli to the brain
• The activity of the brain due to pain stimulus
• Interactions between neurotransmitters and different hormones
• Electrochemical differences between the genders
• Chemical differences between the genders
• The objective perception of pain and how it relates to real stimulus
• The emotional perception of pain and how it relates to real stimulus
• The effects of emotional state on perception and sensation...
• Sociological factors affecting pain occurrence, perception, reporting and analysis

... and so on.

Now I'm not saying that these claims aren't true. There may indeed be a higher frequency of pain stimuli in women than in men; this may indeed be due in part to higher densities of pain receptors in females. However, this is a very new area of study with lots of pop-science, very little pertinent data and even less proper, rigorous analysis. Basically we simply don't know enough about it yet.

As such, to jump from very limited studies such as these to general sweeping statements about differences between the sexes is, in my opinion, perhaps a leap too far.

Hope that helps explain my views

I almost never have headaches. But I do have a caffeine habit.

One of the effects of caff is effectively to open up the blood vessels around the brain. More blood = more oxygen and 'fuel' therefore the brain speeds up and we feel more awake. The pain of a headache is partly because those same blood vessels have contracted due to stress, infection or whatever. Course when you come off caff, your body doesn't have the drug to open the vessels any more and that actually shrinks the blood vessels causing kind of 'headache in reverse' as it were. So caff withdrawal = massive headaches until your body readjusts.

People with serious caff habits should never get headaches, they're effectively taking anti-headache drugs. Course they do also talklikethisallthetime and can barely keep still for a moment.

Jon

I am rarely ill so that will not affect me, plus I do cut down on caffeine as much as possible and go lo caff, later in the day.