Man Flu? - Men are more resilient than you think..

Thwarting those who might have us believe that Man Flu is a real phenomena and potentially costly to industry - researchers seem to have shown that men actually have a higher tolerance to pain than women.

Esmeralda Garcia and colleagues used a device to apply pressure to 12 pairs of pressure points on the bodies of 12 men and 18 women. Nine of these pairs of points were the so-called 'tender points' used to diagnose fibromyalgia (chronic diffuse pain), on each side of the body.

As the pressure on these points was increased, the participants were asked to indicate when they first experienced pain, as distinct from unpleasantness or discomfort. Men showed greater pain thresholds at all three of the pairs of control points and two of the pairs of tender points.

Quest Duty Consultant suggests that it could be more a case of blokes being macho about it and holding out longer.... ?