Prolactin and Pain Threshold in Women: Oral Contraceptives Can Reduce Pain

October 28, 2025

2 min read

Imagine taking the birth control pill and getting rid of your migraines at the same time. As it turns out, this is possible! Researchers in the Health Sciences Department of the University of Arizona have identified a mechanism that explains why women are more sensitive to pain than men, and what can help.

Key takeaways

Imagine taking the birth control pill and getting rid of your migraines at the same time.
Women feel pain more
Evidence base

Who this is for

People exploring Hormones and thyroid through hormones, women health.

Why it matters

This piece helps you get oriented quickly, then move into a collection or series if you want to keep going.

Article author

Darya

Writer, Ornament

Women feel pain more

The cause of the increased sensitivity to pain is the neurohormone prolactin, known mainly for promoting lactation after childbirth.

It has often been believed that women experience less pain than men. This is supposedly designed by nature so that women can give birth and not die of pain shock. This has never been clinically proven.

Scientists did an experiment on mice of both sexes, some of which were stimulated to release prolactin. The brains of females reacted several times sharper to the pain signal after prolactin release than the brains of females without stimulation and both groups of males. The findings suggest that new pain treatments targeting prolactin suppression would be of great benefit to women suffering from pain syndromes.

Evidence base

To clarify the effect of prolactin on pain threshold in young women, 144 women were examined. The first group included 72 patients with elevated prolactin and 72 patients with normal levels. All of them were prescribed combined oral contraceptives for 14 cycles. The results of the evaluation of the hormonal profile showed that the levels of all hormones, including prolactin, in both groups under comparison were within the age norms. Patients in both groups reported that menstruation was less painful, and headaches, joint pain, and the premenstrual syndrome were less common.

"There are about 35 million migraine patients in the United States, and 3 out of 4 of them are women. In patients with fibromyalgia, 9 out of 10 are women; in irritable bowel syndrome, 3 out of 4 are women. If you can help them, it will change their lives," says one of the study's authors, Dr. Frank Porreca.

Sources: Yanxia Chen et al, The prolactin receptor long isoform regulates nociceptor sensitization and opioid-induced hyperalgesia selectively in females, Science Translational Medicine (2020). DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aay7550

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