Childbirth vs Getting kicked in the Balls

WHICH ONE IS MORE PAINFUL – CHILDBIRTH OR GETTING KICKED IN THE BALLS?

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Childbirth vs getting kicked in the balls

In the battle of sexes we are fiercely divided, who has a worse when it comes to pain?

On one hand women are left with the task of fitting a watermelon sized object through a coin sized hole. On the other hand, males protest that even the slightest nick of their family jewels can leave them incapacitated. So, which hurts more childbirth or getting kicked in the balls?

There is a rumor circulating the internet claiming the human body can take up to 45 del units of pain and yet a mother feels up to 57 del of pain during childbirth, which is apparently equivalent to 20 bones being fractured once. The claim then goes on to suggest that being kicked in the balls brings more than 9000 del of pain. Now apart from the absurd logic that both of these events can surpass the alleged human limit it actually uses a unit of pain, the del, which doesn't even exist. There is a unit of pain once devised called dol, from the Latin word for pain dolor.

The del system

To really evaluate this question we first need to understand what pain is, which isn't an easy task. There is actually a group of specialized nerve cells in our body called nociceptors that react to pain. Unlike other nerves which readily fire in response to normal touch or temperature, nociceptors will only fire once a certain pain threshold has been passed. Some of these nociceptors respond quickly sending signals to the spinal cord and brain which produce sharp and sudden pain, allowing us to react quickly. While others transmit more slowly and are responsible for the prolonged dull ache we feel.

For males, testicles are internal organs that have migrated out of the body cavity. Some internal organs such as liver feel no pain, others like testicles covered with many nociceptors make them extremely sensitive. After all their well being is of utmost importance. Further more the testicles are attached to many nerves in the stomach as well as the vagus nerve which is directly connected to the brain's vomit centre and this is why when hi the pain spreads throughout the abdomen. The fact that testicles have minimal protection only strengthens the accompanying symptoms of nausea, increased blood pressure, heart rate and sweating.

But not so fast gentlemen, even though childbirth may not be facing a direct blow to any internal organs, the mechanical distension of uterine area also triggers nociceptors and causes the same kind of visceral pain. Also consider that throughout evolution female human hips have become smaller while baby heads have become larger. And no to mention labour lasts 8 hours on average with a mixture of nausea, fatigue and pain. On top of it all, tension and stretching of muscle and tissue increase as labour intensifies creating sharp and localized pain.

Okay, so both obviously hurt and have a lot of mechanical stimulation sending signals to pain centres of the brain. But this is where it gets tricky, because the pain isn't simply a physical response but rather a partially perceptive or subjective experience. This means that every single individual perceives pain in a slightly different way. And not only between individuals but depending on our mood, alertness or even previous experience pain may affect us differently. It's for this reason that so many attempts to objectively measure pain have failed including dol system. Interestingly nearly 80% of upper limb amputees experience a  phenomenon known as phantom limb pain, that is, they feel pain in a limb that is no longer there. And while little is understood about the mechanism of pain , it is clear that there is no particular input to trigger the response and yet they still feel a very real pain. As such pain is not a stimulus, it is an experience that is different for everybody. Suffice to say both instances of childbirth and getting hit in the balls can hurt a lot. So we call this one a tie, apart from the fact that the experiences are completely different and there are so many variables to consider. In some instances a man could experience more pain than his female counterpart and vice versa. The main difference being one results in  a new born baby, while the other potentially results in a decreased chance of having one.

It's a tie