Recent research indicates similarities between pain tolerance levels in men and women. The study, conducted at the University of Málaga, also indicates that resilience, or an individual’s ability to overcome adverse circumstances, is a primary quality linked with an individual’s pain tolerance and how that person adjusts to chronic pain.

The study indicates that the role gender plays in this ability is not as pronounced as previously believed.

Previous clinical trials have indicated crucial gender differences in susceptibility to pain through illness along with effectiveness of medications and recovery post-anaesthetic. The results also suggests that men and women deal with pain related to chronic injury in a similar way, contrasting previous beliefs that women have a higher pain tolerance than men.

The researchers found that how resilient an individual is will determine high or low pain tolerance due to the link of a variety of characteristics that allow the individual to deal with chronic pain.

The study included 400 patients with chronic spine pain, 190 men and 210 women, who were treated in primary care centers. The findings suggested more similarities than differences among the sexes.

The study’s main author, Carmen Ramírez-Maestre, researcher at the Andalusian institution, said in a statement, “More resilient individuals tend to accept their pain, that is, they tend to understand that their ailment is chronic and they stop focusing on trying to get the pain to disappear, to focus their energy on enhancing their quality of life, despite the pain.” She continued, “In this regard, patients who are able to accept their pain feel less pain, they are more active on a daily basis and have a better mood.”

According to the American Academy of Pain Medicine, chronic pain affects approximately 100 million Americans and 1.5 billion individuals globally.