Erstaunlicherweise leiden viele Männer unter Schmerzen beim Sex, äußern diese aber seltener als Frauen

>New [research](https://doi.org/10.1080/19317611.2025.2605125) published in the International Journal of Sexual Health provides evidence that pain during sexual activity is a common experience for college students of all genders. The study suggests that individuals who strongly believe in traditional gender roles are less likely to communicate with their partners about this discomfort. These findings highlight the need for better sexual communication to help people prevent and manage everyday physical discomfort during intimate moments.

>While sexual activity is usually associated with pleasure, unwanted physical pain is a reality for many people. Most scientific focus on this topic relies on clinical samples, looking at people with diagnosed medical conditions or severe sexual dysfunctions. This approach leaves a gap in understanding everyday, non-medical pain that occurs occasionally during sexual encounters.

>The authors of the new study wanted to explore this mild to moderate discomfort among a general population. They designed the study to understand how often college students encounter physical pain during different types of sexual activities. The researchers also sought to discover why people might hide their discomfort from their partners.

>“One of my student co-authors approached me about wanting to do some research, and because of a reading I had assigned in my class, she was very interested in the issue of pain during sexual activity. Our examination of the research literature revealed that non-clinical levels of pain during sexuality hadn’t been studied all that much, especially not in men,” said study author Terri D. Fisher, a teaching professor at The University of the South and professor emeritus at The Ohio State University.

>“We eventually added two more students to the team and developed both qualitative and quantitative questions to help us gain an understanding of the extent of physical discomfort during various types of sexual activities, the reactions to that pain, and possible reasons for the pain and the reactions.”

>For this study, 263 U.S. college students were asked about how common they believed painful sex to be

>Women were almost twice as likely as men to report pain during penile-vaginal intercourse. Of those participants who experienced pain during vaginal-penile sex, women were twice as likely as men to tell their partners about it and four times more likely to stop the activity compared to men. Participants higher in hypergender beliefs were less likely to report painful penile-vaginal intercourse to their partners. A thematic analysis yielded nine themes for why women and men might feel pain during sexual activity and six themes for why they might continue painful sexual activity. Hypergender attitudes were related to several of these themes.

Interestingly enough, with the prevalence of circumcision in the US, I don’t expect many guys having phimosis in the study, would be interesting in another country. However, I don’t se how it makes the difference between pain linked to circumstance (bad position leading to pressure at the wrong place) and systematic pain (Phimosis, vaginism, and more).

I would guess that that beside th „hyperender beliefs“, men (believe they) have a bit more margin to adapt for a potential pain/discomfort, especially in more traditional form of sex.