4 Body Parts Where Women Experience Chronic Pain
Understanding Chronic Pain in Women
Many women experience chronic pain in various parts of their bodies, whether it’s abdominal pain during menstruation or migraines. If you’re one of them, you’re likely an experienced pain warrior, familiar with the feeling of others not noticing your struggle, even though the pain is very real. But did you know that, according to the Harvard Medical School blog, while 70% of chronic pain sufferers are women, 80% of pain studies are conducted on men?
Living with Chronic Pain
In the recent film Five Foot Two, which offers a behind-the-scenes look at Lady Gaga’s life, there’s an emotional scene where she discusses the chronic pain she experiences daily due to her fibromyalgia. Unlike the star, we may not have to prepare for a Super Bowl performance, but we do have to go to work, fulfill family and social obligations, and few people care that pain makes it difficult. The singer herself refuses to simplify her show to make it physically easier, as that would mean she’s giving up. Moreover, Gaga would be letting down everyone who struggles alongside her.
On a positive note, medicine is advancing, and the main “problem” areas that require special attention have now been identified. Doctors recommend monitoring what triggers this pain and not postponing treatment if it’s possible.
Problem Areas and Chronic Pain
Facial Pain
The Good Body, a website dedicated to medical research, reports that the National Institutes of Health conducts annual studies and has found that women are twice as likely to experience facial and jaw pain as men. This pain is often described as moderate to severe, or tension affecting multiple areas of the face or jaw. However, studies are disproportionately focused on men, and women continue to suffer in silence. No matter how much pain women experience, they are not taken seriously!
Migraines
Migraines are a constant, overwhelming pain felt on one side of the head, accompanied by nausea, visual and cognitive disturbances, and other symptoms. Some studies suggest that migraines in women are linked to hormones, but this theory has not yet been confirmed. What is known for sure is that men experience this type of pain four times less often.
Moreover, the BMJ found a correlation between migraines in women and cardiovascular diseases, and it looks alarming: about 15% of women participating in the study reported having migraines. They are 50% more likely to have a serious heart condition compared to women without migraines.
Neck Pain
Science Daily reports that the most common problem is degenerative disc disease of the cervical spine. Symptoms include pain, tingling, and numbness, which worsen when turning the head. This disorder is found in women 1.38 times more often than in men.
Constantly pretending that everything is fine is quite exhausting, both physically and morally. Some turn to massage therapists for help, others to cryotherapy, and some just grit their teeth and swallow painkillers by the handful.
Consider this: women with chronic pain are more likely to receive prescriptions for sedatives rather than serious painkillers. Or here’s a little-known fact: men, on average, wait 49 minutes before taking a pill. For women, 65 minutes pass before they give up and reach for painkillers.
Lower Back Pain
One reason why women experience back pain more than men may be related to the behavior of a specific gene, as reported by Johannes Gjerstad, a senior researcher at the Norwegian National Institute of Occupational Health. Although we all basically have the same genes, there are many that have small variations. The OPRM1 gene, involved in regulating pain in the body, is to blame. About one in four people, regardless of gender, carries this unfortunate gene variant, and at least six out of ten people with this variant suffer from lower back pain.
Other researchers report that men’s and women’s bodies interact differently with the brain, and all pain starts in the head, even though it seems real. And some claim that lower back pain can even be caused by psychosocial stress! As if the pain of childbirth and restrictions on rights weren’t enough.
