News

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‘It’s time to stop pretending that women’s pain doesn’t exist’

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Health professionals have called for more training and better support after a landmark inquiry into women’s pain revealed a sobering picture of gender health gaps, medical bias, and feelings of being ignored or dismissed by clinicians.
 
The long-awaited Bridging the Pain Gap report, released on Sunday by the Victorian Government, was shaped by the responses of 13,000 women and girls aged between 12 and 79, as well as carers, clinicians and peak bodies.
 
More than 90% of respondents reported experiencing pain lasting longer than a year, and 54% described living with pain every day.
 
In other significant survey responses of the impact of pain:

• 89% of respondents reported impacts on their mental health
• 59% reported impact on their recreation and hobbies
• 52% reported impact on intimate relationships
• 44% reported impact on their work, study and volunteering activities

In all, 27 recommendations across seven key areas emerged from Australia’s first inquiry into women’s pain, including:

• rolling out ‘green whistle’ pain management inhalers across all sexual and reproductive health hubs in Victoria
• the development of a Women’s Pain Action Plan
• establishing a children and adolescent clinic within the Royal Children’s Hospital
• more funding for women’s health research
• embedding women’s health in medical education
• improved training and professional development
• establishment of an advice service for clinicians
• development of a Clinician’s Resources Library.

‘A health system built around Caucasian male biology, coupled with historically low investment in women’s health research, has left many without effective pain relief or treatment,’ the report noted.
 
‘It’s time to stop pretending that women’s pain doesn’t exist.’
 
Launched in January 2024, the inquiry not only highlighted the need for systemic change for patients, but for greater support for GPs, with 91% of respondents naming GPs as the most common service accessed and the first point of contact with the healthcare system.
 
Of the more than 400 health professionals to complete the report’s survey:

• 70% report limited knowledge and skills as a barrier to providing quality care
• 78% see education and training as an enabler to providing quality care
• 64% believe inadequate time is allowed for appointments, creating a barrier to providing quality care. 

Women’s Health Advisory Council member and Head of the Department of General Practice at Monash University Professor Danielle Mazza said the inquiry reveals a healthcare system better designed to meet acute care issues, which ‘frustrated’ GPs.
 
‘The kind of pain that’s being talked about here is more long-term chronic pain, which is more complex and not well dealt with in an emergency department setting, or in short consultations,’ she told newsGP.
 
‘Health professionals recognise that and feel frustrated in their inability to manage or provide access to the kind of chronic care and multidisciplinary care that’s clearly required.’
 
Professor Mazza, who also leads the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health in Primary Care (SPHERE), said she believes GP training needs ‘a lot more focus’ on women’s health and women’s pain.
 
‘It’s certainly something that we’ve been advocating from SPHERE’s perspective, and we’ve been working collaboratively with the [RACGP] around the curriculum review that they’re currently finalising,’ she said.
 
‘Traditionally, GPs did a year of a hospital rotation of obstetrics and gynaecology in a women’s hospital and got a lot of experience there that they then took out into practice. It’s not clear at the moment how many GPs are actually still having a year of experience in a hospital focused on obstetrics and gynaecology.
 
‘There are very small numbers of these services being delivered in hospital settings, and as this has moved more out into community settings, there’s less opportunity for GPs to get their training in that fashion through their residency.’
 
Professor Mazza also suggests GPs could make greater use of chronic disease care planning for women’s pain management.
 
‘There’s a lot of focus in general practice on using chronic disease care planning for issues like cardiovascular disease and diabetes and dementia and cancer care, but we don’t often think about it in relation to these chronic pain conditions that are so prevalent amongst women, such as fibromyalgia, endometriosis, those kinds of conditions,’ she said.
 
‘Particularly in women of reproductive age; they don’t meet the stereotype of chronic disease care planning.’
 
Professor Mazza commended the Victorian Government for having the ‘courage’ to hold the inquiry.
 
‘For a lot of people it would be like opening Pandora’s box,’ she said.
 
‘They did open Pandora’s box, and they had the courage to seek out and hear what women had to say.’
 
The Victorian Government has committed to developing the Women’s Pain Action Plan over the next six months, in consultation with women.
 
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