A leading psychologists has found that women experience chronic pain – including headaches – for longer, more intensely and more often than men.
Dr Jennifer Kelly, who works with both sexes, said studies have shown that women are 50 per cent more likely to suffer headaches, neck, shoulder, knee and back pain.
She said that they are also two and a half times more likely to be struck by a migraine.
The findings could explain why women sometimes use having a headache as a way of avoiding sex when men say it would never put them off.

A leading psychologists

What is definitely true is that women will divulge more to psychologists than men will.

Women have twice as many pain receptors as men

which means they feel pain earlier and generally register more pain, but I'm not sure about the headaches thing. I'm sure there must be exceptions to the rule, but I certainly think women make more fuss about headaches than men. That said, orgasm is a very effective pain reliever so I never understand why women use it as an excuse, although, apparently it doesn't work the same for blokes, it just makes the headache worse.

That depends on which head.

Is there such a thing as a trollette ?

I find that rather hard to believe, to be honest with you. At least in general over the whole body. What evolutionary advantage is there in it? I can go for women being more sensitive to the signals of pain receptors but just having more of them doesn't really do you that much good.

The basis of this phenomenon has not been understood, said the authors. Some have suggested the reason could be psychosocial, while others have offered biological explanations including differences in receptor action potentials, integration of central nervous system signals, and biochemical signaling properties.

To investigate whether a difference in nerve receptor density might account for the phenomenon, Dr. Wilhelmi and colleagues tested the skin of 20 cadavers, half men and half women. One centimeter square skin samples directly overlying the infraorbital nerve foramen were harvested, prepared with immunohistochemistry, and examined under a high-powered microscope.

The nerve fibers in each sample were counted by a researcher who was blinded to the gender. The average fiber density in female samples was 34 ± 19 fibers per square centimeter. The average density in male samples was 17 ± 8 fibers per square centimeter. (P=0.038.)