Thomas David A, Bruckheim Hannah E, White Jamie M
Office of Research on Women's Health, Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
Office of FOA Development and Referral, Division of Extramural Research Activities, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
J Womens Health (Larchmt). 2021 Feb;30(2):260-264. doi: 10.1089/jwh.2020.8870. Epub 2020 Nov 20.
Maternal morbidity and mortality constitute a national health crisis, and pain is a significant component of maternal morbidity. One important way to reduce maternal morbidity is to reduce the pain associated with pregnancy. Unfortunately, our understanding of how to reduce pain in women is hampered because, historically, mostly male subjects have been used in the study of pain. However, more recently, females increasingly have been included in pain research studies, and astounding differences in how males and females process pain have been uncovered. Moreover, pain in nonpregnant women differs in many ways from pain experienced by pregnant women. We argue here that to better address maternal morbidity, we must better address the pain associated with pregnancy. Furthermore, just as it is important to include both men and women in pain research to better understand pain in both sexes, conducting pain research in pregnant women is essential to finding ways to reduce pain in pregnant women.
孕产妇发病和死亡构成了一场全国性的健康危机，而疼痛是孕产妇发病的一个重要组成部分。降低孕产妇发病率的一个重要方法是减轻与妊娠相关的疼痛。不幸的是，我们对如何减轻女性疼痛的理解受到了阻碍，因为从历史上看，疼痛研究大多使用男性受试者。然而，最近，越来越多的女性被纳入疼痛研究，并且发现了男性和女性在疼痛处理方式上惊人的差异。此外，未怀孕女性的疼痛在许多方面与怀孕女性所经历的疼痛不同。我们在此认为，为了更好地应对孕产妇发病问题，我们必须更好地解决与妊娠相关的疼痛。此外，正如在疼痛研究中纳入男性和女性对于更好地理解两性的疼痛都很重要一样，对孕妇进行疼痛研究对于找到减轻孕妇疼痛的方法至关重要。
