Data reveal how doctors take women’s pain less seriously than men’s
A new study of hospital emergency departments suggests that women have more limited access to painkillers and medical care
More than 20,000 discharge notes of patients who had come in with ‘non-specific’ pain complaints were analyzed and after initial assessment, women waited an average of 30 minutes longer than men to see a physician and were less likely than men to receive pain medication. This trend was consistent regardless of the gender of the nurse or doctor.
Women are viewed as exaggerating or hysterical and men are viewed as more stoic when they complain of pain,” says co-author Alex Gileles-Hillel, a physician-scientist at Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center in Jerusalem.