Abstract
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to clarify the sex difference in the perception and pain thresholds to the thermal stimulation in the trigeminal nerve area.
Methods: Subjects were composed of 80 healthy volunteers (40 males and 40 females, mean age: 24.7 years). Thermal perception and pain thresholds of the trigeminal nerve were evaluated with thermal quantitative sensory analyzer (TSA-II®, Medoc). Thermal stimulation was applied to the skin surface of bilateral cheeks. The data were statistically analyzed to evaluate whether the values were influenced by sex and/or laterality with two-way ANOVA using SPSS Statistics® 17.0.
Results: Warm perception thresholds were significantly lower in females than in males (P=.001), while no difference was found in the cold perception thresholds between both sexes (P=.379). No laterality was found both in warm and cold perception thresholds. Heat pain thresholds were significantly lower in females than in males (P=.003), while no difference was found in the cold pain thresholds between both sexes (P=.515). No laterality was found both in heat and cold pain thresholds.
Conclusions: There found a sex difference both in thermal perception and in pain recognition to thermal stimulation of the trigeminal nerve.
