“Since we all have varying degrees of tolerance for pain, and have equally varied experiences with different types of pain, it makes the scale feel kind of meaningless -- especially when you consider that the person trying to ascertain how much pain the patient is in has his or her own experiences with pain that are thrown into the mix, too. A doctor trying to figure out how much pain a patient is in, when she says it's 'worse than a broken leg,' but 'not as bad as childbirth,' is still only going to be able to guess what that means based on his or her own experiences -- and perceptions -- of pain.” PainPain TolerancePain ScaleEmergency Medicine Book:Ask Me About My Uterus: A Quest to Make Doctors Believe in Women's Pain Source: Ask Me About My Uterus: A Quest to Make Doctors Believe in Women's Pain