Candid Discussion About Women’s Pain in Health Care

by Jamil Ragland

A panel of medical practitioners and legislators discussed the ways that the medical field often dismisses women’s pain, and offered solutions that may help improve care for women in the state.

Rep. Jillian Gilchrest, D-West Hartford, chaired the panel discussion, where she and other legislators discussed the extremely painful or dismissive experiences they’ve endured while seeking medical care.
“There are many women serving in this Connecticut General Assembly who have had their own experiences with pain in getting health procedures in the state of Connecticut. They’ve also had conversations with constituents, and time and again it comes up that when women go to the doctor, they are experiencing pain and not being offered any kind of pain management,” Gilchrest said.

Traditional medicine seems to be dismissive of women even though a recent study found they spend $15 billion more per year than men on health care. 
“When we talk about health care, what we’re talking about is women looking for health, moving towards an improved environment, and care. That’s what’s missing, is care, and actual compassionate companionship.for women who are going through these issues,” said Cynthia Goetz, a nurse-midwife at East Hartford Community Health Care Inc. 
The problem is not imaginary, according to the experts on the panel. 

“Medical gaslighting of women is real,” said Dr. Nancy Stanwood, Chief Medical Officer of Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, “and I think this is an important conversation to talk about where it comes from and how we can counteract it.and prevent it from being an ongoing part of medical culture.”
Women have long suffered from dismissive and even hostile medical care. Several studies have shown the discrepancies between how women are treated for pain as opposed to men. Women wait longer for pain medication than men, often have their pain dismissed as “emotional” due to gender stereotypes, and even face potentially fatal consequences because medical professionals ignore serious pain symptoms.
Black women often suffer even more due to the nexus of gendered and racial discrimination when receiving medical care. According to recent research published by the National Library of Medicine, half of all medical students and residents believe that Black patients have thicker skin and less nerve endings than their white counterparts, and as a result experience less pain.This leads to misdiagnosis and inadequate treatment of pain. 

Rep. Kai Belton, D-Middletown, shared a harrowing experience she had while seeking medical care. “I remember being discharged from the hospital because I was having preterm labor and I ended up going back to the hospital that same day in excruciating pain. My pain wasn’t believed in that moment and I ended up having my son in my t-shirt.
“As a Black woman coming from a community that does not trust the health care system for the most part, an early experience like that sets the tone for the rest of my life,” she said. 
Another element of the pain women face is the way that medical procedures are performed on them. The panel discussed how women are taught that pain during routine procedures such as pap smears and biopsies is normal, and that pain mitigation strategies are not taught to providers. 

“I was never taught to do anything to make a patient feel comfortable [during a biopsy],” said Dr. Dawn Kopel, an obstetrics and gynecology specialist at Yale New Haven Health. “I learned somewhere along the way that you can use a Benzaclin spray and it made an enormous difference for patients. I think things like this should be taught during residency.”
The panel agreed that the best strategy for improving pain management for women was the need to change the culture of medical care generally to one that centers the experience of women, listens compassionately to them and responds appropriately.
“I think we have to remember who’s the expert on pain, and it’s not the provider. It’s the woman who’s experiencing it,” Goetz said.