It seems that women are more prone to pain than men, atleast the International Association for the Study of Pain states that.

Melanie Thernstrom was 32 and the pain began in her neck but she went for the swim despite this. The pain travelled from there to her right shoulder and then hand.

Thernstrom went to see various doctors but followed a suggestion given by a neurologist that the pain would subside on its own.

She said, "I felt increasingly worried, but somehow not in a way that enabled me to take further action, more in a way that paralyzed me. I think of pain like one of those sea animals that attacks you by paralyzing you first."

She has turned 46 and the pain still affects her life.

According to Jennifer Kelly of the Atlanta Center for Behavioral Medicine in Georgia, pain affects more women than men across the world. From pain women have more disabilities as compared to men.

Pain in women is also more severe and the time-period is longer as well. As compared to men, pain-causing illnesses such as fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis and irritable bowel syndrome are more common in women.

Kelly added that hormones are one possible cause of this.