Childbirth is one of the many things endured by women that men will never have to go through.
And though the payoff is, of course, extraordinary, childbirth is often considered to be the worst pain anyone could possibly endure.
Though there are some men, and even a few women, who might disagree.
Redditor WolfiooTheWolf was curious to hear from the men of Reddit what they think might actually be even more painful than delivering a baby, leading them to ask:
"Men of Reddit, what do you think is more painful than childbirth?"
Serious burns
"I'm a burn survivor."
"In 1973 I was involved over 85% of total body surface, 15% of that total was 3rd degree, meaning all layers of skin were burning."
"My shipmates put me out with a mattress cover."
"I spent the next 18 months in hospitals."
"After becoming stable, about two weeks, I underwent daily debreedment of dead tissue."
"Lowered into a stainless steel t-shaped tank filled one third with saline, the nurses cut away all the bandaging and then using scissors and scalpels cut away all the detritus."- fuzzo
"According to several studies, being on fire."- RetroNotRetro
Ulcers
"I had a pressure ulcer that went down to the bone after a coma, required many debridements to cut out slough tissue."
"One time they didn’t adequately numb the area before cutting."
"The world went white and I wished someone near by would stop screaming."
"A second later I realized it was me."- MFDork
It's not childbirth, but what comes after...
"They have to push down on the mother's stomach after giving birth to get some of the excess blood out."
"Multiple times."
"Think CPR but on the stomach."
"My wife said that was 10x worst than the birth part."
"I'm going to go with that."- Samilski87
...or what comes before...
"My wife thought the last month of pregnancy was worse than giving birth."
"She said giving birth was more painful for that day, but the constant tiredness and back pain was a worse experience for her."
"Makes me think of all those people, especially old people, with long term ailments having to go on each day with pain."- AFourEyedGeek
Hopefully not something that happens too often
"Getting flayed alive."- carawanar
"Sawing of a limb without anesthesia."- jbsdv1993
Radiation poisoning
"Accute Radiation poisoning, the level that you get from holding Cobalt-60 too long or what killed Daghlian and Slotin after the demon core incidents."- FASBOR7Horus
"Acute radiation poisoning."
"Fun fact; it's impossible to administer pain killers effectively."
"Once your body starts decomposing with you still alive inside of it, there's nothing but pain left."- propellhatt
Kidney stones
"Wife said kidney stone was at least the same as child birth, natural, maybe worse."- afictionalaccount
When all is said and done, this doesn't seem like a competition anyone wants to win.
Nor does one expect those who were actually able to compare and contrast feel particularly lucky for that unfortunate distinction.
At least with childbirth, there's a glorious reminder of why it was all worth it.
@WSJ/X
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