ok, gotta poke my nose in here.
1: all pain is relative to the individual. on a 1 to 10 scale, 10 being the worst youve ever felt is inherently subjective for a reason. my 10 might be worse or less than my neighbor's. but its still an effin 10.
2:no doubt childbirth is one of the most painful non traumatic things that can happen to the body. by traumatic i mean something that is done to injure the body from an outside source. self generated pain is different from external generated pain. it is easier for any given individual to bear over the short term. acute pains like stubbing your toe dont count in what i mean. im talking about 3rd degree burns, stabbings, shooting etc. broken bones. that kind of trauma where the pain lasts more than say an hour.
childbirth tends to be both kinds. there is the internal pain of the contractions etc... and then theres the possiblity of traumatic damage from tearing and or surgical intervention.
3: men can not experience childbirth directly. thus the age old game of finding something to compare it to so we can at least understand it. and i say age old because i've not only heard the discussion since i was a kid, but comedians and such have done riffs on it as early as the 40s that i know for a fact. i can easily imagine some barbarian talking around the fire with his clan comparing being sliced in the gut by a sword to childbirth and some woman saying bullshit to him lol.
4: for comparing such pain i tend to go with what i have heard from women themselves. when women tell me that kidney stones are close in pain level to childbirth i believe them. other things i've heard of that are similar in intensity or type of pain include bad burns, broken bones (particularly ribs and the pelvis) and gunshots. thus i can come closer to "getting it" than i could before i asked.
5: nutshots. i've had kidney stones, broken bones and 1 third degree burn. i've also taken more than my share of nutshots over the years. along with the standard type where you bang them once or get kicked by accident etc i've had them attacked on purpose with repeated blows. bad enough i sought medical attention. it was as bad or worse than the kidney stones. same with the burn (though it was a small burn, maybe quarter sized). hell it was way worse than the small burn i received. we're not talking where you hurt for a few hours and then get up and move around just fine. i'm talking the kind of pain where you get nauseous right off the bat.
as the pain continues you cant breathe. you cant stand up. every movement makes it worse. days later you are still walking funny. a week later and there is still a dull ache that is constant and movement makes worse twinges. the first time i experienced it the pain itself wasnt gone for nearly a month.
is that the exact same as childbirth? hell no. but from hearing the women of my family describe their labor and recovery (and being genetically similar our pain thresholds and such are as close as you can get in relative scale and not be twins) i can say with sureness that it is just as bad if not worse in its own way. the intenisty, type and duration are as close as you can get.
in other words just as no man can truly "get" childbirth, no woman can truly "get" the experience of having their nuts crushed. it is however the closest thing i have ever experienced that compares to things that women use to compare to childbirth.
im reaching the tl;dr limit so ill leave off there other than to say please remember that something experienced by the senses of one person can only be compared. it can not be experienced directly and exactly unless you develop psychic powers. thus the joy of pulling out our memories and sharing so as to come to a bit of empathy between human beings who are otherwise stranded on an island of experience isolated from everyone else.
1: all pain is relative to the individual. on a 1 to 10 scale, 10 being the worst youve ever felt is inherently subjective for a reason. my 10 might be worse or less than my neighbor's. but its still an effin 10.
2:no doubt childbirth is one of the most painful non traumatic things that can happen to the body. by traumatic i mean something that is done to injure the body from an outside source. self generated pain is different from external generated pain. it is easier for any given individual to bear over the short term. acute pains like stubbing your toe dont count in what i mean. im talking about 3rd degree burns, stabbings, shooting etc. broken bones. that kind of trauma where the pain lasts more than say an hour.
childbirth tends to be both kinds. there is the internal pain of the contractions etc... and then theres the possiblity of traumatic damage from tearing and or surgical intervention.
3: men can not experience childbirth directly. thus the age old game of finding something to compare it to so we can at least understand it. and i say age old because i've not only heard the discussion since i was a kid, but comedians and such have done riffs on it as early as the 40s that i know for a fact. i can easily imagine some barbarian talking around the fire with his clan comparing being sliced in the gut by a sword to childbirth and some woman saying bullshit to him lol.
4: for comparing such pain i tend to go with what i have heard from women themselves. when women tell me that kidney stones are close in pain level to childbirth i believe them. other things i've heard of that are similar in intensity or type of pain include bad burns, broken bones (particularly ribs and the pelvis) and gunshots. thus i can come closer to "getting it" than i could before i asked.
5: nutshots. i've had kidney stones, broken bones and 1 third degree burn. i've also taken more than my share of nutshots over the years. along with the standard type where you bang them once or get kicked by accident etc i've had them attacked on purpose with repeated blows. bad enough i sought medical attention. it was as bad or worse than the kidney stones. same with the burn (though it was a small burn, maybe quarter sized). hell it was way worse than the small burn i received. we're not talking where you hurt for a few hours and then get up and move around just fine. i'm talking the kind of pain where you get nauseous right off the bat.
as the pain continues you cant breathe. you cant stand up. every movement makes it worse. days later you are still walking funny. a week later and there is still a dull ache that is constant and movement makes worse twinges. the first time i experienced it the pain itself wasnt gone for nearly a month.
is that the exact same as childbirth? hell no. but from hearing the women of my family describe their labor and recovery (and being genetically similar our pain thresholds and such are as close as you can get in relative scale and not be twins) i can say with sureness that it is just as bad if not worse in its own way. the intenisty, type and duration are as close as you can get.
in other words just as no man can truly "get" childbirth, no woman can truly "get" the experience of having their nuts crushed. it is however the closest thing i have ever experienced that compares to things that women use to compare to childbirth.
im reaching the tl;dr limit so ill leave off there other than to say please remember that something experienced by the senses of one person can only be compared. it can not be experienced directly and exactly unless you develop psychic powers. thus the joy of pulling out our memories and sharing so as to come to a bit of empathy between human beings who are otherwise stranded on an island of experience isolated from everyone else.
