Period Pain & Gender Disparities in Healthcare
You may or may not be familiar with the period cramp simulator, a machine designed to mimic different levels of period pain. I’ve seen a few viral videos floating around in which men, who are obviously in pain, use a period cramp simulator. In contrast, women in these videos are usually calm due to being accustomed to the pain. While it’s funny to see the differences between the reactions of men and women, the amount of pain many people with periods face on a regular basis has negative repercussions in the medical world.
For one, there is a pattern in the healthcare community of women not receiving as much medication to help ease general pain as men. Research has shown women are much less likely to receive painkillers for their ailment and post-surgery than men do. This inequality is, in part, due to the normalization of women’s pain and perceptions of women as overdramatic when it comes to expressing pain. In addition, studies of pain usually center male subjects, so there is a lack of understanding of pain related to female anatomy.
These disparities in treatment for severe pain also have repercussions related to endometriosis, a condition in which cells similar to those in uterine lining grow outside the uterus. Endometriosis affects about 10% of people with a uterus, and some common symptoms are severe pain and menstrual irregularities. There are treatment options, including pain and hormonal medications and surgery, but there are barriers to receiving these treatments. Firstly, endometriosis is commonly misdiagnosed as IBS, ovarian cysts, pelvic inflammatory disease, or even severe period cramps. Bad period pain is also so normalized that people that suffer endometriosis often don’t think their pain is abnormal and don’t feel the need to bring it up to a doctor. These factors have caused an average 8.6-year delay in diagnosing endometriosis (Bontempo), and as a result, patients can receive innefective treatment or no treatment at all. (Dangi-Gramella).
How can we fix gender disparities in healthcare? One solution is dedicating more medical research toward reproductive health. There has been a lack of research toward periods and conditions related to female reproductive health in the past, with more research dedicated to erectile dysfunction than PMS, which affects 90% of people with periods. A better understanding of these conditions would help doctors correctly and quickly diagnose patients. Doctors must also learn to listen to patients and help them understand there can be reasons for their pain other than period cramps.
Sources:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32007945/
https://www.patientsrising.org/endometriosis-is-commonly-misdiagnosed/
The points you bring up are very prevalent, and in my opinion-not discussed nearly enough. While those period cramp simulator videos are pretty funny, you're right in that they relate to a significant problem in healthcare, and just around women in general. The intrinsic trivialization of female pain comes from stereotypes of women being more emotional and sensitive, but the result of this invalidation is instead a need for women to gain tolerance to severe pain, especially around menstrual cycles. And your point about not a lot of being research done about menstruation/uterine -specific issues is true in my experience: I remember our health teacher telling us freshman year that she didn't know really why women got cramps during their period, since no one had done enough research on it. That was shocking for me at the time, and I suppose it's still the case. Thank you for writing about this!
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