More and more human beings experience in their lives persistent pain for months or years, not necessarily associated with any kind of injury or disease. International epidemiological data shows that an average of 35,5% persons experience chronic pain (CP). Moreover, 11% of adults experience severe and incapacitating CP.

War against pain has a relatively recent international and national history. In Portugal, only in the last decade efforts have been made to overcome the under developments in such area of research. Nevertheless, a lot of work is left undone. In fact, pain has been one of the most neglected topics of research in the history of medicine. It was only after the Gate Theory (Melzack & Wall, 1965) that pain, traditionally seen as a linear and direct response to noxious stimuli, became conceived as a biopsychosocial phenomenon.

Sex and gender studies on pain experiences are a field of research that clearly look for integrating psychological and social factors in accounting for pain experiences. Such was the general main contribution of this project. Starting from evidence that pointed to sex-related differences in pain, this project bridged a gap between two distinct lines of research which seldom crossed: 1) control-related beliefs and coping literature, which is predominantly individualistic and psychological  and 2) gender studies, which add a sociological and psychosocial perspective.

The project started with a general approach on how health practitioners and the lay public viewed CP and gender issues. Specifically, we aimed at analyzing gender role expectations people may have on pain control and pain coping.  Next, we investigated the role that gender role expectations played in shaping health technicians’ perceptions of patients and their suffering, and ultimately, their pain assessment and management strategies. Both quantitative (experimental studies)  and qualitative (grounded-theory) methodologies were used in this project.