Global Year Against Pain in Women
Why ‘Real Women, Real Pain’?
The ‘Real Women, Real Pain’ campaign aims to
empower women and raise awareness of pain issues affecting women
worldwide.
Every day millions of women around the world suffer from chronic pain
but many remain untreated. Several reasons may explain why barriers to
treatment still exist. Psychosocial factors, such as gender roles,
pain coping strategies and mood may influence how pain is perceived and
communicated. In addition, there may be a lack of acceptance or
understanding of the biological differences between men and women that
may impact how pain is perceived. These psychosocial and
biological factors, coupled with the economic and political barriers
that still exist in many countries, have left millions of women living
in pain without proper treatment.
Female Pain Issues
Pain conditions affecting women have a significant global
impact. Yet, there is still a lack of awareness/recognition of
pain issues affecting women. Chronic pain affects a higher proportion of
women than men around the world; however women are less likely to
receive treatment. Research has shown that women generally
experience more recurrent pain, more severe pain and longer lasting pain
than men.
Many people are unaware that certain pain conditions are more
prevalent in women than in men. For example, fibromyalgia, a condition
characterized by chronic widespread pain, is significantly more
prevalent in women (80-90% of diagnosed cases are women).1
Other conditions that disproportionately affect women include irritable
bowel syndrome (IBS), rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis,
temporomandibular joint disorder (TMJ), chronic pelvic pain and migraine
headache. For more information on these and other pain conditions
affecting women, please click
here to view our fact sheets or click
here to view our media backgrounder.
References:
1. NIAMS. Questions
and Answers about Fibromyalgia. Publication No. 04-5326. NIH;
2004.
Resources
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Fact Sheets, on topics ranging from obstetric pain to gender-based
violence, are available in nine languages (English, Spanish, French,
Russian, Arabic, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Hindi, and
Gujarati).
IASP Materials Available for Download
- "Real Women, Real Pain" Overview (PowerPoint)
- "Update on Fibromyalgia
Syndrome" – Pain: Clinical Updates, 2008,
Volume XVI, Issue 4
- "Gender, Pain, and the
Brain" – Pain: Clinical Updates, 2008,
Volume XVI, Issue 3
- "Dysmenorrhes: Contemporary
Perspectives" – Pain: Clinical Updates,
2007, Volume XV, Issue 8
- "Pain of Urogenital
Origin" – Pain: Clinical Updates, 2000,
Volume VIII, No. 5
- "Sex and Gender Issues in Pain" – Chapter 12,
Core Curriculum for Professional Education in Pain, 3rd edition
(2005)
- "Pain in Pregnancy and Labor" – Chapter 36,
Core Curriculum for Professional Education in Pain, 3rd edition
(2005)
- "Gender Considerations in the Epidemiology of Chronic
Pain" – Chapter 5, Epidemiology of Pain (1999)
IASP Publications Available for Purchase
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