The Gender Pain Gap: Why Womens' Pain is Not Taken As Serisosly As Men's Pain?
It’s 2022. The female body cannot still be a medical mystery. Surely?
It’s no coincidence that the word “hysteria” originates from the Greek word for “uterus.” Female hysteria was once a common medical diagnosis for women, applied whenever women displayed troublesome emotions such as anxiety, anger and even sexual desire. For centuries, it was believed that the uterus itself was the cause of a woman’s “hysterical” symptoms. This ancient and misogynistic notion has crept into our current medical practices and understandings, with women being misdiagnosed or ignored when in pain.
It is suggested that scientists and doctors know far less about the female body than they do about the male body. This exclusion and unequal treatment of women from clinical research has resulted in historical medical failure such as the result of the use of thalidomide to treat morning sickness in pregnant women in the 1950s, unknowingly causing thousands of birth defects.
Research suggests that diagnostic errors occur in up to one out of every seven encounters between a doctor and patient in the US and that most of these mistakes are driven by the physician’s lack of knowledge. Women are more likely to be misdiagnosed than men in a variety of situations. It’s been noted that in recent years, women have said their doctors frequently blame their health problems on their mental health, weight or a lack of self-care, which can delay effective treatment. For instance, research suggests that women are twice as likely as men to be diagnosed with a mental illness when their symptoms are consistent with heart disease.
When Sarah Szczypinski, a journalist in Seattle, began experiencing pain and swelling in her knee after giving birth to her son in 2016, she said that one doctor told her she had postpartum depression, while another told her she needed to lose weight and do more exercise. When in actual fact she was suffering from hip dysplasia exacerbated by her pregnancy. Sounds painful, huh?
And it’s even worse for women of colour, “We know that women, and especially women of colour, are often diagnosed and treated differently by doctors than men are, even when they have the same health conditions,” said Karen Lutfey Spencer, a researcher who studies medical decision-making at the University of Colorado, Denver. People of colour often receive poorer quality care and doctors are more likely to describe Black patients as uncooperative or non-compliant, which can affect treatment quality.
Research has shown that when people are juggling many cognitive tasks, they are more likely to make biased decisions. One study found, for instance, that male doctors were less likely to prescribe pain medications to Black patients with lower back pain when the doctors were under stress.
It's widely known that although women experience more chronic pain conditions than men from fibromyalgia, endometriosis, or migraines, women’s pain is treated less seriously. In a 2019 HealthyWomen survey, 45% of respondents said they didn't think their healthcare providers took their pain seriously. And there are facts behind those feelings, Women experiencing pain are more likely than men to receive a sedative prescription such as anti-depressants instead of a pain medication prescription.
Dr. Grossman, a Clinical Psychology stated in a NorthWell Health interview, “I believe that psychological and social influences contribute to women being gaslighted. For example, men have a tendency to be more vocal and more persistent with their concerns. Women may have a harder time pushing back and advocating for themselves. They feel like they need to be good patients, which means accepting what their doctors tell them. But by doing so, they’re stripping themselves of a voice.”
Studies have shown that compared with men, women face longer waits to be diagnosed with cancer and heart disease, are treated less aggressively for traumatic brain injury, and are less likely to be offered pain medications.
On 20 July 2022, the UK government published the first-ever Women's Health Strategy for England to tackle the gender health gap. This new strategy consists of major new research on women’s health issues to increase understanding of female-specific health conditions and tackle the data gap to ensure diagnosis and treatment work for women. The Government has said It will ensure all doctors are trained to provide the best care to women by introducing as well as introducing mandatory specific teaching and assessment on women’s health for all graduating medical students and incoming doctors.
This new strategy was called after damning taboos and stigmas around women’s health made women feel like they could not seek help and 8 out of 10 women have felt that they were not listened to by healthcare professionals.
This is a step forward, a very late step but a step forward nonetheless.
Professional and thorough health care is a fundamental human right which should be accessible to all, regardless of gender, race, class or disability.