Gender plays a big part in the perception of pain. As surprising as it may be it is well established that males have a much higher tolerance of pain than females, both in their perception of pain and in their physiological response to pain, quickened heart rate, increased blood pressure etc.

Interesting work by David Williams,of the University of Westminster in the UK, has shown that the gender of the person administering the pain is also important. Earlier studies indicated that men reported higher pain thresholds when the person administering the pain was a female. This was put down to a macho display on the part of the recipients. It turns out, however, that both males and females, genuinely experience less pain when the person administering it is female.

There has been some theorising over the evolutionary benefit of this phenonema however it seems pretty tenuous at this stage. At least we now know why women make better nurses.

Read more about pain in New Scientist.