The Gender Pain Gap: Women’s Pain is Being Dismissed

Maybe it’s back pain. Maybe you’ve had it for years. You finally get the courage and time to go to the doctor, and you’re not given the answers or support you need. Whether it’s a dodgy knee or endometriosis, women in Australia are sick of being dismissed or forgotten.

The gender pain gap is real, and it’s about time things changed. Nurofen recently released a national Gender Pain Gap Index Report, which shows that over half (55%) of women feel that they have had their pain ignored or dismissed compared to just 48% of men.

Women may be more likely to experience pain, too. Around half of chronic pain conditions are more likely in women, such as back pain and osteoarthritis. And female-specific pain conditions, such as endometriosis, are much more common than male-specific pain conditions such as chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome, reports The Conversation.

Sarah White, CEO of Jean Hailes for Women’s Health, says: “Shining a light on the gender pain gap is crucial to closing it. Research shows it’s taking women longer to get a diagnosis and treatment for their pain which is adversely impacting their lives.

“It is simply unacceptable that when some women are in pain they are not being provided the care they need when they need it, and prompt action is needed to change this. Now the issue has been highlighted on a national level, I am hopeful that a wider awareness and understanding will drive real change in how women’s pain is believed and treated.”

Why is women’s pain treated differently?

The Gender Pain Gap survey showed almost a third of women (32%) who felt their pain was ignored or dismissed believe this was because their GP didn’t take their pain seriously, compared to just one fifth of men (20%). This phenomenon has been coined medical misogyny.

Women’s health conditions are taking a long time to diagnose, too. Of those who’ve had their pain diagnosed, half of the women (56%) received a diagnosis within 11 months compared to three quarters (76%) of men.  

The survey does back up what we already know internationally. Women are more likely to be given sedatives than pain meds for their pain, reports Harvard Health. And we’re prescribed fewer painkillers than men even when it comes to major surgery. In America, women wait longer in emergency rooms for abdominal pain and are seven times more likely to be misdiagnosed in the middle of a heart attack.

“Unfortunately, there are demonstrated gender biases when it comes to pain. Indeed, half the women in the study who believed there was a gender pain gap felt women’s pain was dismissed because women were viewed as ‘emotional’ and many felt that women were just expected to suffer,” says White.

There is also less known about women’s pain. Up to 80% of pain studies are conducted on male mice or human men, reports Harvard Health.

“We have a real gap in knowledge when it comes to women’s pain because most medical research is ‘male by default’ from laboratory animals to clinical trials on humans. This absolutely has to change,” she says.

Pain impacts women more

Pain has a greater impact on many aspects of daily life for women compared to men. For people experiencing chronic pain, women are almost twice as likely as men to have depression.

And according to the Gender Pain Gap survey, for people who experience pain:

• 56% of women report it has affected their mood in a negative way, compared with 42% of men.
• 32% of women say their pain stops them from working, versus 23% of men.
• 39% of women state that their pain impacts their social life compared with 27% of men.

Women are less likely to seek help for pain

According to the survey, only 57% of women find it easy to explain the pain they experience to their healthcare provider, compared with 65% of men. So it’s not surprising that women are twice as likely not to try and get a diagnosis for their pain (14% of women vs 6% of men).

What sort of pain are women experiencing?

The Gender Pain Gap Index looked at all kinds of pain. But what are some of the most common causes of pain for women?

“That is a surprisingly tricky question to answer,” says White. “For older women, the most common cause of pain is probably pain associated with arthritis. If we are talking young women, though, it’s likely that period pain is the most common cause of pain.”

“The problem is that we women get a rough deal, generally, when it comes to pain. More women are affected by chronic pain conditions, like endometriosis, fibromyalgia and migraines, but we also have a higher occurrence of acute pain, whether that’s headaches, abdominal pain, or musculoskeletal pain from damage to bones, muscles, ligaments and tendons.

“Research has shown that women experience more pain and we also experience pain differently compared to men.”

How can the gender pain gap change?

“Jean Hailes for Women’s Health has been hearing – for decades – women speak about how they feel dismissed or ignored, and the research by Nurofen actually gives us some pretty clear pointers about what healthcare professionals need to do,” says White.

“We need all healthcare professionals to believe it if a woman says she is in pain and to demonstrate that they believe her; don’t dismiss it, treat it. For individual women, I really do recommend they use the Pain Pass, which is a free, downloadable tool that women can use to track their pain and symptoms and describe their pain in a way that is most helpful for their GP or other healthcare professional. These sorts of shared tools can be really helpful in having a really constructive discussion.”

In Victoria, the government has announced an inquiry into women’s pain to improve women’s health outcomes.

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan sums it up nicely: “It’s time we stopped treating women’s health like some kind of niche issue. We deserve to have our pain believed and relieved."