Pain thresholds and pain tolerances are both tricky things.  My dad, who had
RA along with other stuff, had an exceptionally high pain threshold.  Once
the pain reached the point where he felt it, he was at least as much of a
wimp as the rest of us - maybe more as his pain was rarely that high.  
Surgeons used to get oon him for NOT using more pain medicine post-op and my
mom would have to convince them that he really wasn't in pain!  The downside
is I think he didn't push as hard as he could have for better treatment of
his RA or for joint surgeries earlier because he really didn't have much pain
from it - just stiffness and swelling.

Unfortuantely (maybe) non of us inherited that.  We all seem to have a fairly
high pain tolerance, but fairly normal pain thresholds.  Or we did until my
fibro - I guess that's partly a matter of pain thresholds being off, but who
knows what really is going on?  I do know that my pain tolerance was trained
into me early when my mom told me if I insisted on doing something stupid and
paid the likely consequence, she didn't want to hear me complain!  Since I've
been an adult, she's told me how her heart ached at times watching me suffer
in quiet, but I learned not to complain of the consequences of something I
really shouldn't have done!  LOL  ;-)