Gender-related differences in visceral perception in health and irritable bowel syndrome.
BACKGROUND
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is more common in female subjects, and IBS patients generally exhibit reduced pain thresholds to rectal distension. The aim of the present paper was to determine gender-related differences in rectal perception in both healthy controls and IBS patients.


METHODS
Fifty-nine IBS patients (age 20-65 years; mean, 39.2 years; 31 women, 28 men) with symptoms that fulfilled Rome-II criteria and 21 healthy controls (age 25-58 years; mean, 37.8 years; 11 women, 10 men) were recruited. Participants completed a questionnaire regarding bowel symptoms and psychological distress, and maximal tolerable pressures were evaluated via barostat tests.


RESULTS
Although healthy women appear to have lower perception thresholds than men, significant gender differences in pain sensitivity were not detected (P > 0.05). In addition, female patients with IBS also exhibited no enhanced colorectal perception, as compared with male IBS patients (P > 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
No gender differences in visceral perception were determined to exist between the healthy controls and the IBS patients. Therefore, the increased prevalence of IBS in women may be related to another set of pathophysiological factors, and not to gender-related differences in visceroperception.
Kim
Hyun Seo
HS
Department of Medicine, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Rhee
Poong-Lyul
PL
Park
Jungho
J
Lee
Jun Haeng
JH
Kim
Young-Ho
YH
Kim
Jae Jun
JJ
Rhee
Jong Chul
JC
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D043183:Irritable Bowel Syndrome / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017288:Pain Threshold / Q000502:physiology*; D011312:Pressure; D012007:Rectum / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012737:Sex Factors