Pain

Until recently, conventional wisdom held that women were wired to have a higher pain tolerance so they could endure childbirth. Not true, as many studies have shown. In one conducted at the University of Bath, in England, researchers found that women report a greater number of painful episodes over their lifetimes and experience more pain than men when exposed to the same stimulus in laboratory experiments.

Males and females actually experience pain differently, especially persistent and severe pain, says Phyllis Greenberger, the president and CEO of the nonprofit Society for Women’s Health Research, in Washington, D.C., and the author of The Savvy Woman Patient (Capital, $20, www.amazon.com). Women have also been consistently shown to wake up sooner from anesthesia, which may be due to levels of hormones, like estrogen and testosterone, that are different from those in men, says Greenberger.

Takeaway: Anxiety, which women are particularly prone to, can exacerbate feelings of pain. If you are about to have an operation or are coping with chronic pain, find ways to relax through meditation or hypnosis, or ask your doctor about medication.