why do women v more than men?

[hairyfairy]

I`ve read on various emet websites that women v more often than men. It`s not just websites, it has always seemed to me that women have weaker stomachs than men. I would have thought men would v more often, as they drink much more alcohol than women, but this does`nt seem to be the case.

[becca44]

From reading the posts on here id say more men vomit than women as a lot of husbands and boyfriends have been ill and their partners have avoided it. Both my husbands were sicker than me whether through viruses or alcohol or even nerves, and hubby no 2 is emet. Id say that amongst "normal" people its a close call as to who vomits more, maybe they took morning sickness into account in the poll, its obviously not a male problem

[pretendworld_]

I think women might v* more because of pregnancy and looking after sick children. It's normally the mum that does that so she is often exposed to the illness and hubby isn't.

[gumdropper1]

Becca - Your post is riddled with selection bias. Basically, the posts here on IES are not random. IES is overwhelmingly female, and even if we had more men, it's not a male style to post "oh my wife threw up and now I'm freaking." So naturally all you ever read about here is women reporting that the men in their lives are puking.

There was no specifically accounting for morning sickness, etc. in the poll. All the polls asked are questions like "did you barf in 2010?"; "When did you last throw up?" The people answering will report it for whatever caused it.

To answer hairyfairy's original question, although you wouldn't know it from reading IES, women are more accepting of vomiting than men are. When you ask the question "which is worse, nausea or vomiting?", men will tend to say vomiting is worse and women will tend to say nausea is worse. Therefore more men will try to keep themselves from vomiting and more women will let/make vomiting happen to put an end to their nausea.

Also, relatively few men prefer vomiting to diarrhea as an outcome when they have a digestive crisis. Men overwhelmingly prefer to excrete southward. About half of women would rather puke when they have a digestive upset.

Women are also more likely to have induced themselves to vomit for whatever reason. I did two polls on that question, and in each of them only slightly more than half of males had ever induced themselves to puke but three fourths of females had.

Doug

[Jen06]

I don't think any amount of research could prove who vomits more. There is no possible way to take into account every living human in the world. People vomit for different reasons, emet or not. Some contributors could be: stomach virus, other digestive or respiratory temporary illnesses, cancer treatments, food poisoning, morning sickness, labor and delivery, alcohol, drugs, reactions to prescription drugs, anesthia, diseases, indigestion/acid reflux, intolerances, motion sickness, etc. The list will go on and on. Obviously vomiting rates will be higher in some countries than others. Every person is different. I'm sure women may seem to vomit more because of the exposure to their children when they are ill, along with morning sickness and labor/delivery. But I'm sure the amount of men vs. women isn't as unequal as we might think.

It does seem there are more female emets than male by looking at this forum... but then again, there are plenty of people who don't even know this phobia exists! They just think they're 'weird' and know that they have an extreme fear of vomit/vomiting. Some men have a hard time accepting that they are afraid of anything, with biases that suggest men need to be 'tough.' It's sad, but I know several men that feel that way. Society suggests men cannot be afraid of anything; that they must be tough, strong, and invincible. Of course that isn't the case at all.

Either way, I believe what Doug said is true... a majority of men will say that they fear actually vomiting more than the nausea. For me, as a woman, I know that the nausea is what causes the fear, because the nausea means that I may vomit. I fight nausea as long as I can... but at some point, my body gives in. I wish there were a cure for this phobia...Then maybe we'd all live fearless, adventurous lives! Good topic! I enjoyed reading the responses.

[person54321]

Plus don't forget, in these surveys some of the women were pregnant. That can cause higher numbers.

[gumdropper1]

Jen: Survey research can certainly prove who vomits more. It is not an unanswerable, unexplainable mystery of the universe. It's simply a question that hasn't been asked much.

Person: I don't know if any of the respondents were pregnant. It was not a question asked. It's reasonable to believe the vast majority were not pregnant.

Doug

[Jen06]

Are there specific trials that have been done? Taking into account an equal number of men and women? I don't mean to doubt what you've said at all. I would just like to see these studies. And of course, there would have to be enough research done over several years to prove the point in question. For every control group, there would have to be an equal number of men vs. women.

I really enjoy this post because as you said... it's a question not asked often, but I'm sure it had crossed all of our minds at some point.

[gumdropper1]

Jen: Trials and control groups are words used to describe experiments. All I've done is survey research. Doug