72% of Chronic Pain Patients are Women
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Coauthored by Taisiya Reed and Julie Markhus
Women report pain more severe and frequently than men, yet they are less likely to receive pain medication or be included in pain studies.
The Stats: Women experience more severe and unexplained pain.
70% of patients with unexplained pain/ symptoms are women (Harvard Health, 2017)
72% of patients with chronic pain are women (Molander et al. 2018)
The largest study to examine sex differences on human pain perception found that that women feel pain more intensely than men. (Staikou et al. 2017)
Why does women experience more pain? We don’t know:
Yet 84% of pain studies are conducted only on male mice. (Mogil. 2016)
The major reason given is that “female hormones makes it too complicated”
If women experience more pain, you would think that they receive more painkillers than men? That is far from the case:
Healthcare workers more often underestimate female patients pain compared to male patients. Because women are often believed to have a higher pain tolerance than men. (Samulowitz et al. 2018)
Women undergoing coronary bypass surgery were half as likely as men to receive painkillers for the same procedure. (Beyer et al. 1983)
However, women are much more likely to be prescribed sedatives rather than pain medication when they experience pain (Calderone. 1990)
Summary
There is a major pain gap between men in women in the way we diagnose, study and manage pain. Women are less likely to be taken seriously and receive sufficient pain medication when they seek help. As a consequence, many women suffer alone with undiagnosed and untreated pain.
Questions for thought:
Why are women prescribed less frequently pain killers than men? Why are they less likely to be taken seriously?
What are the consequences of such a major part of the population living with untreated and undiagnosed pain?
References:
Beyer et al. 1983 “Patterns of Postoperative Analgesic Use with Adults and Children Following Cardiac Surgery” https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6634214/
Calderone. 1990 “The influence of gender on the frequency of pain and sedative medication administered to postoperative patients”https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00289259
Harvard Health, 2017 “Women and pain: Disparities in experience and treatment” https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/women-and-pain-disparities-in-experience-and-treatment-2017100912562
Hoddmann and Tarzian. 2001 “The Girl Who Cried Pain: A Bias Against Women in the Treatment of Pain” https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11521267/
Samulowitz et al. 2018 “Brave Men and Emotional Women: A Theory-Guided Literature Review on Gender Bias in Health Care and Gendered Norms towards Patients with Chronic Pain“ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29682130/
Staikou et al. 2017. “Differences in pain perception between men and women of reproductive age: A laser-evoked potentials study https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28204781/
Mogil, 2016 “Perspective: Equality need not be be painful” https://www.nature.com/articles/535S7a
Molander et al. 2018 “The role of pain in chronic pain patient’s perception of health-related quality o life: a cross-sectional SQRP study of 40,000 patients. https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/sjpain-2018-0003/html
This week Veronica is in Tallinn at BananaConf and DeSci Nordics. She was on a panel today with Eleanor and Morgan (fellow fabulous DeSci DAOists) and tomorrow will present a dedicated Asterisk deep-drive. She is posting her key takeaways on LinkedIn — have a look!