HMS and the Brain
Gender and Pain
In the April 2011 issue of More magazine, Alice Lesch Kelly writes a brilliant article entitled “The Male-Female Pain Gap” which explores why men often receive better pain relief from their doctors than women. In her article, Kelly uncovers three disturbing statistics ... 1) Women are less likely to be treated for pain and or/pain disorders than men . Kelly gives several examples of studies which show that women are treated less often for pain than men. Kelly explains that one reason for this is that women tend to describe their pain with more emotion than men, which has led many doctors to believe, consciously or unconsciously, that women tend to exaggerate their pain. As a result, the myth that women make up pain that doesn't exist or that they experience pain that is only 'in their heads' continues to circulate within the medical community. These biases often mean that women are more likely to have their pain dismissed or ignored by medical professionals than men. 2) ...
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