This International Women’s Day: believing women’s pain

On this International Women’s Day, I wanted to highlight the health disparities women face, and why believing women’s pain matters.

Endometriosis affects around 1 in 10 women and those assigned female at birth worldwide - roughly 190 million people. Yet in the UK, it takes an average of eight to ten years from a first GP visit to receive a diagnosis.

Why?

Many stories start the same way: a GP appointment, a five-minute conversation, reassurance that it’s “just a bad period”, and a prescription for birth control or ibuprofen.

We’re given symptom management instead of proper investigation. We’re prescribed anti-inflammatories and warned not to overuse them because of stomach, kidney, and heart risks - yet no alternatives are offered.

When we return with bloating, fatigue, and heavy bleeding, we’re told it’s normal. Or IBS. Or anxiety.

Those without a chronic illness say things like, “We get tired too” or “You’ll grow out of it”. They ask if we’ve tried a hot water bottle. In reality, we use heat so often that some of us develop toasted skin syndrome - and we no longer want to wear our low waist jeans or crop tops.

Historically, research and clinical trials defaulted to male bodies, assuming findings applied equally to women. As a result, women’s pain often doesn’t match the ‘textbook’ symptoms clinicians are trained to recognise, and is regularly normalised or attributed to stress.

This androcentricity causes significant health disparities, resulting in women being dismissed, misdiagnosed, or not receiving sufficient treatment. This can have long-term effects.

Chronic pain and dismissal make everyday life difficult. Days off work, financial strain, mental health struggles, and strained relationships are all too common.

Recent changes in UK primary care aim to improve how persistent symptoms are handled. Under a policy known informally as Jess’s Rule, GPs are encouraged to escalate or reconsider diagnoses if someone presents with the same unresolved symptoms three times.

This shift is significant when nearly half of people with endometriosis report seeing a GP over ten times before formally being diagnosed, highlighting how often persistent pain gets dismissed before being taken seriously.

Your symptoms matter. If you’re back again and again without answers, that persistence deserves attention and escalation. Don’t give up: you know your body, and you deserve to be taken seriously.

By understanding the barriers women face and advocating for better care, we can take a step towards equality in healthcare.