International Women's Day 2025 - #AccelerateAction

Today, I took a call from a desparate patient who attended ED this week in debilitating pelvic pain and was sent home with one tablet for pain relief after waiting 4.5 hours. She was told to re-attend if the pain didn’t go away. It didn’t, but she physically can’t wait at ED again and doesn’t know what else to do.

Yesterday I met a woman who has spent the last 25 years having excruitiating periods to the point of vomiting, pooing blood and missing work 2-3 days per month. No one can figure out how to supress her periods, or reduce her pain, nothings worked.

Yesterday, a woman told me she’s never had pain free intercourse, she’s 45 and has teenage kids.

I could go on. This is literally only a snapshot of the last 24 hours in my job. The overwhelming and repetitive sentiment I hear from women who have lived with gender specific pain conditions is; “I feel helpless”.

They are tired. Sick of advocating for themselves, sick of repeating their story. Worried about being dismissed, stressed about the amount of time away from work it requires to attend appointments, the cost of appointments, or simply the time off they need when they are in debiliating pain. These women are not weak, they have lived with labour-like pain occuring for several days a month, for years, with not only imperfect drugs to control the pain, but often no real respect for the level of pain they are contending with from sometimes, family, friends, colleagues or even health professionals.

And their lack of progress in managing it, is not their fault. It is quite plain and simply, a form of gender discrimination. More than the gender pay gap, the gender pain gap is exceptionally creul. It is the broader society saying; “We don’t believe you; you’re not worth it; you’re just weak”.

And no singular person, no parent, no partner, no individual medical or health professional is to blame. It takes years and generations for this kind of discrimination to take hold. Years of inadequate listening, inadequate funding, inadequate research, inadequate care, inadequate solutions.

Last year, the Victorian Government conducted the Women’s Pain Inquiry and found 40% of women live with chronic pain, 1 in 3 women have had experiences of being dismissed by health practitioners, and 30% of women experience gender specific health issues that impede their ability to work. Women’s Pain is beginning to be heard, to be believed. This is a start. A good start. Today on International Women’s Day, as a health professional, I feel it is my responsibility to #AccelerateAction on Women’s Pain Management.

Please read this, share it with someone who needs to feel heard; to feel like they can trust that their advocacy has, and is pushing the dial for themselves, their daughters, their granddaughters. That maybe they can rest a bit as the rest of us do some of the advocacy for them.

#InternationalWomensDay2025 #AccelerateAction #GenderPainGap
Written by Kym Veale