Many women’s health conditions like dysmenorrhea, endometriosis, adenomyosis, interstitial cystitis, vulvodynia, chronic pelvic pain, and UTIs—are closely tied to pain. This pain is often severe and life-altering, negatively affecting quality of life, relationships, careers, education, and income through missed work and school. Chronic pain also has serious mental health implications.

Some of these conditions are exclusive to women, like period pain and endometriosis, while others, such as heart attacks, may manifest differently in women or affect them more frequently, like chronic pain conditions. Yet across the board, women’s pain is more often dismissed or misdiagnosed by healthcare professionals, limiting access to care and slowing vital research.

Understanding the gender pain gap
The “gender pain gap” reflects the systemic shortfalls in funding, awareness, and research into women’s pain, contributing to widespread suffering and inadequate care.

This gap stems from various causes: historical underrepresentation in research, limited medical training on sex-specific health issues, and persistent gender bias.

Adding complexity, pain is inherently subjective. For treatment to be initiated, a provider must first acknowledge the pain and then deem it clinically relevant. However, pain perception is shaped by intricate molecular mechanisms and is further influenced by mental and emotional states.

Cultural perceptions
Cultural stereotypes feed this issue. For instance, studies show that men with chronic pain are often described by physicians as “brave,” while women are more likely to be labeled “emotional” or “exaggerating.” Many societal norms wrongly suggest women should simply tolerate pain, or worse, that they feel less pain than men.

This is deeply flawed period cramps, rated as severe by 90% of women, can be as painful as a heart attack.

Research gaps and education
Women were excluded from mandatory inclusion in clinical trials until 1993, leaving a legacy of gender imbalance in data. Today, women make up 70% of chronic pain sufferers, yet 80% of pain studies use male subjects human or animal.

This disparity carries into medical education, where curricula often fail to reflect sex-based differences in symptoms, diagnoses, and treatments.

Clinical consequences
This leads to different diagnostic and treatment experiences. In a UK survey, over half of women felt their pain was dismissed by doctors. Women also face longer diagnostic delays than men reporting similar pain fewer than half of women get a diagnosis within 11 months compared to two-thirds of men.

Treatment bias is also stark: women are more likely to be prescribed sedatives or mental health meds rather than proper pain relief. Many women stop seeking care altogether—20% say they felt ignored previously, versus 10% of men. For female-specific conditions like endometriosis, 59% of patients believe providers recommended self-care because they didn’t believe their symptoms.

IP’s potential to close the gap
Intellectual Property (IP) can help narrow the gender pain gap. Patents can protect innovative pain treatments and enable drug repurposing for underserved populations. With various IP strategies available, our Women’s Health team can help you build a strong, investable IP position in this critical space.

Source: https://www.mewburn.com/news-insights/why-womens-health-is-such-a-pain-the-gender-pain-gap