Good for you and I didn’t degenerate anything.
You know there’s been more than one study this century that should have put the old wives tale to rest.
Here’s an excerpt from one of those studies:
“One example of this is the different strategies men and women use to cope with pain. Whilst women tend to focus on the emotional aspects of pain they experience, men tend to focus on the sensory aspects, for example concentrating on the physical sensations they experience.
“Our research has shown that whilst the sensory-focused strategies used by men helped increase their pain threshold and tolerance of pain, it was unlikely to have any benefit for women,” said Dr Keogh.
“Women who concentrate on the emotional aspects of their pain may actually experience more pain as a result, possibly because the emotions associated with pain are negative.” “
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/07/050705004113.htm
When my wife was giving birth 4 times, i wish i could have said “Relax. You’re focusing on the emotional aspect of the pain. That will make it worse.” Yeah, that would have REALLY gone over well. :)