Women suffer more pain than men across the whole body, major global study finds

Women report suffering more pain than men, a major new global study has found.

That was true for all types of pain the researchers measured, and comes amid continuing concern about the gender pain gap, which means women are less likely to be prescribed the pain relief they need.

Researchers from all over the world carried out “one of the largest harmonisation efforts in pain epidemiology to date”. Data was collected from more than 6 million people from 118 countries from 1990 to 2025, and included people from aged five years to more than 100.