Why women’s pain is underestimated and how awareness of the gender pain gap can help

Dr Bill Laughey

Senior Medical Scientist, Reckitt

The gender pain gap (GPG) highlights disparities in how pain is perceived, treated and managed between genders and shines a spotlight on the need for better women’s healthcare.

Ongoing research reveals biases, stereotypes and disparities in pain management contributing to the unequal identification and treatment of women’s pain.

What is the gender pain gap?

The gender pain gap refers to the phenomenon in which pain in women is more poorly understood and more mistreated compared to men’s pain due to systemic gaps and biases. Dr Bill Laughey, Senior Medical Scientist at Reckitt, explains: “Women actually experience pain more frequently than men, which on average is more disruptive to their lives. Yet, unfortunately, we — as a society — don’t take pain in women as seriously.”

Nurofen’s mission is to help women receive a timely diagnosis, ensuring that they are treated fairly and their pain is validated. “We want a more compassionate society. We want to help close the gap for good,” adds Dr Laughey.

Gender Pain Gap Index Report

According to Nurofen’s Gender Pain Gap Index Report, one in four women versus one in six men felt that, generally, no one took their pain seriously.¹ More concerningly, only 47% of women surveyed received a diagnosis for their pain within 11 months, compared with 66% of men.² This might prevent women from seeking appropriate pain treatment. When adding issues such as menstrual pain or gynaecological concerns, which can be uncomfortable to discuss, the need for change becomes more urgent.

By sharing your experiences and openly discussing your pain, we can help to raise awareness of the gender pain gap to fight for change.

Pain Pass enhances patient dialogue

The report also highlights that women find it challenging to talk about their pain. In fact, one-fifth (20%) of women want more resources to aid better conversations between them and their healthcare professionals.² Recognising this need, Nurofen created a Pain Pass tool for patients, available for free.

“We’ve developed a Pain Pass tool in collaboration with leading pain specialists to help empower and equip women to get the right support, diagnosis and treatment for their pain,” says Dr Laughey. The Pain Pass is available online or as a pocket-sized foldaway. To date, it has been distributed in over 2,300 GP surgeries and is available in high street pharmacies.

“The Pain Pass is essentially a pain diary, to empower women and enable better conversations with healthcare professionals. It provides a pain tracking calendar and provides adjectives to help describe pain, such as numbing, dull or aching pain,” says Dr Laughey. “Feedback has been extremely positive. We encourage patients to use the tool as a resource to advocate for themselves and improve treatment plans for pain.”

Dr Laughey insists: “We urge women to download the pain pass tool and use it as a resource to advocate for themselves. By sharing your experiences and openly discussing your pain, we can help to raise awareness of the gender pain gap to fight for change.”

Collaboration as key to change

“We know we can’t address this change alone, so we are partnering with academic institutions such as Oxford University and The University of Manchester to advance research into the gender pain gap,” Dr Laughey continues.

“We have created a free Gender Pain Gap training programme for healthcare professionals, leveraging insights from research carried out with leading women’s health charity Wellbeing of Women. We are excited to announce that over two-thirds of Superdrug’s pharmacists, pharmacy assistants and nurses have completed the training,” he adds.

Campaigning to close the gap

“We see our campaign as being aligned with what the UK Government is hoping to do in terms of improving women’s health — by driving education initiatives, supporting medical research into women’s health and attending professional conferences,” says Dr Laughey. “By sharing experiences and openly discussing pain, we can help to raise awareness of the gender pain gap to fight for change.”