Rheumatoid arthritis is often more painful for women than for men, despite the fact that visible symptoms are the same and doctors should take more account of these differences when assessing medication requirements, it has been suggested.

The findings of the research are being presented at a congress on gender medicine arranged by the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden.

Men who underwent standard therapy for rheumatism responded significantly better than their female counterparts who had the same treatment, the researchers found, both subjectively - in terms of their own experience of the condition - and objectively - such as the degree of swelling in their joints.

"Purely objectively, the drug had a somewhat better effect on the men than on the women ... But the greatest difference was of a subjective nature. The women in the study felt sicker even when their joints showed the same improvements," commented associate professor Ronald van Vollenhoven.

As such, he suggested that clinicians should take the subjective aspects of rheumatoid arthritis into account, given that their objective is to reduce suffering.

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