Not Crying is Not Mean Men Not Sad

Picture credit: buzzfeed.com

Crying is a behavior that humans have had since they were first born. In many ways, crying is one way of communicating, whether inter-human, human with the surrounding, or with itself.

Initially, this form of communication is manifested in the relationship of mother and baby. When a baby is hungry, thirsty, and uncomfortable, he will cry. This habit then develops as he matures.

As adults, crying as a form of communication is manifested when humans feel uncomfortable. The condition that puts people in discomfort will trigger the rise of emotion, which is sometimes wreaked out with anger or also crying.

The condition is a form of human communication with others, to simply ask for more attention or media to make others more understanding of the intention to be conveyed. Crying can also be a form of communication with someone himself. However, crying is one way to bring someone into their own contemplative space.

From this crying phenomenon in humans, we often encounter differences in the intensity and 'ability' of crying between women and men. If viewed from the intensity, according to research Professor Ad Vingerhoets of Tilburg University, Netherlands, women cry more often than men.

"On average, women can cry 30 to 64 times a year, while men only cry six to 17 times a year," Vingerhoets said, as quoted by the Telegraph.

In his book Why Only Humans Weep, Vingerhoets also explains that there is a time difference between women and men crying. After he interviewed more than 5000 people from 37 countries, he found that 66 percent of men crying less than five minutes and 24 percent others cry for 6-15 minutes.

Unlike men, according to Vingerhoets' findings, 43 percent of women cry in less than five minutes, and 38 percent of women cry for six to 15 minutes. In addition, women who cry 16-30 minutes are two times more likely than men who cry at the same time.

Meanwhile, Anne Kreamer, in her book It's Always Personal: Emotion in the New Workplace also explains the differences between women and men in relation to the frequency of crying. Kreamer teamed up with advertising agency J. Walter Thompson in a survey of 1,200 working Americans. He found that gender affects the frequency of someone's crying.

"As many as 41 percent of women have been crying in their office last year, compared with men who are only 9 percent," said Kreamer.

Is gender difference a scientific reason to explain the phenomenon?

Parvizi in the journal Nature Neuroscience explains what happens when humans cry. The process begins with an endocrine system that sends hormones to the ocular area to activate tears. The brain then releases the human favorite hormone, namely cortisol. This hormone makes the body want to hit people or mourn the sadness under the shower.

Usually when we are about to cry, the throat will feel uncomfortable, like sudden inflammation or there is a stone that cannot be swallowed even drinking. This symptom occurs due to the work of the hormone cortisol which also makes the throat tense.

Usually, people will feel more relieved after the tears come out through tears. This is the influence of the Leucine-Enkephalin hormone, and the endorphins that come out together with the tears coming out of the cheeks. These hormones reduce the pain and improve mood.

Associated with the 'ability' of women and men to cry, Dr. Louann Brizendine, a neuropsychiatric expert at the University of California, San Francisco, also discussed this. In addition to the cultural affairs that "boys do not cry," there are indeed biological factors. There are differences in tear gland cells between men and women.

A man has bigger tear ducts, making it stronger in holding back tears. In addition, Brizendine explains the hormone testosterone that prevents men from crying. This hormone is not owned by women.

"Men are taught not to cry, it is helped by the presence of testosterone that helps boost the threshold between emotional stimuli and tears. Louann Brizendine was quoted as saying by the Wall Street Journal.

Akintunde J. Kehinde, biochemistry researcher Kwara State University, Nigeria, in his research titled Tears Production: Implication for Health Enhancement states that the tendency to cry between men and women is almost the same before puberty.

Only after puberty will girls produce prolactin hormone 60 percent higher than men. The hormone prolactin is wrong a hormone that triggers the release of tears.

"It's no wonder that after puberty, women are four times more likely to cry than men," said Kehinde.

Dr. William H. Frey, neurologist and biochemist at St. Hospital. Paul also explained the association of prolactin hormone with the ability to cry. He mentioned that one of the hormones that cause tears is prolactin, which becomes a lactation catalyst. In addition to functioning in producing milk, prolactin also helps the production of tears. By the time women reach the age of 18, they have a prolactin level 50-60 percent higher than men.

"We believe this is one of the reasons women are more likely to cry," said Dr. William H. Frey, a neurologist and biochemist at St. Paul's Hospital.

The hormone prolactin is more produced women. So, it can be understood if men are more difficult to cry. Moreover, they also produce testosterone that serves to suppress tear production and emotional regulation in men.

In short, the ability of men to hold back tears is the scientific formation of the body's functional system. Therefore, crying-or-not-crying cannot be an indicator of a man's sensitivity. When a man does not cry when faced with difficulty or sadness, he is not automatically rigid, strong, or insensitive. Men cannot cry? The more precise is: men are not easy to shed tears.