Hormones and Their Interaction with the Pain Experience

Abstract

• Sex differences in the prevalence of painful conditions appear after puberty • Variation in symptom severity across the menstrual cycle occurs in a number of clinical pain conditions • Sex steroid hormones act at a number of sites in both the peripheral and central nervous systems and in both reproductive and non-reproductive tissues • Sex steroid hormones have traditionally been thought to alter transcription; however, there is evidence that there are also non-genomic effects • Sex steroid hormones can have organisational effects from as early as in utero • The relationship between sex hormones and pain is complex