Mythbusters revealed who can really endure more pain, men or women

A video by Mythbusters has settled the debate over whether men or women have a higher pain tolerance.

You might have come across one of the many videos explaining how women have a higher tolerance for pain.

It could be a sketch from a tattoo artist on social media, where a man sits there gnashing his teeth and howling in a manly way as he gets a small tattoo, while a woman getting a much more intricate tattoo practically dozes off as the artist gets to work.

The argument goes that women have to deal with a lot more physical pain in their everyday lives, for example from menstrual cramps, as well as in big life events like giving birth.

Well, taking a look at this argument, YouTubers Mythbusters carried out an experiment with some volunteers.

Volunteers had to place their hand in a bowl of ice water for three minutes, or as long as they could take (annick vanderschelden photography/Getty)

So, how did it work?

Well, they got volunteers to place their hand in a bowl of iced water, and see how long they could hold it there for.

When they got to the three minute mark, they were told to take their hand out of the water, assuming they got that far, of course.

And while some men did make it all the way to the three minute mark and some women didn't fare so well, on average women did win out when it came to being able to endure putting your hand in iced water.

The team at Mythbusters also wanted to explore the idea that women who have given birth have an even higher pain threshold.

When they included data for women who had given birth without painkillers, they found that this group had a much higher pain threshold, while women who hadn't given birth actually scored lower than the men.

So, there you go - according to this experiment, the extreme pain of birth with no painkillers could increase your pain tolerance.

While this argument is a lighthearted internet debate in this context, it can actually have very serious consequences in real life.

Pain can be very different for different people and conditions (Daniel de la Hoz/Getty)

For example, the perception that women have a higher pain tolerance than men might lead to a difference in how they are treated medically.

This is a problem for women in general, but especially for women of colour where there is the incorrect and racist stereotype of being able to 'tolerate' pain to a much greater degree, even to the point that if someone says she is in pain, she is less likely to be taken seriously.

The experiment also didn't account for people who live with chronic pain, which can actually change the way someone feels pain over time.

So, a 7/10 pain ratio for a healthy person might be a 1/10 for someone who's lived with chronic pain for many years.

Basically - pain is a lot more complicated than we might think.

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