The Pain Is Just In Your Head....

​The pain is just in your head...that's how I felt when I went to the Cleveland Clinic downtown ER just over a week ago.  The doc implied I was in pain because I was fat, had over-exercised, or that I was simply drug seeking.  It was such an awful experience that I wanted to see if I was the only one.  I felt very much alone and I started to doubt myself which I rarely do. Then I started reading.  And holy shit.  Sorry not sorry for the length of the post.  It's important shit, and if it's 400 words over what people will typically read, well, if you can make it through a Stephen King novel, you can hopefully hang on long enough to make it through here.....

This isn't made up - it's a valid problem, as reported on by the NY Times, Harvard Health, and the Washington Post.  

So what's happening?  Well, unfortunately, if you aren't a white cis male and in pain, good luck: 

• Doctors and nurses give women less pain medication after surgery
• Women wait an average of 16 minutes longer than men in the ER to get medication for pain, and are less likely to receive it
• Male patients are also consistently given more time and attention from nursing folks than females or poc with the exact same systems, as demonstrated in D. McDonald and R.G. Bridge’s “Gender Stereotyping and Nursing Care”
• African-American patients are less likely to receive proper pain management than whites, especially if the source of the pain is not immediately apparent (back/abdominal/etc.)
• Women and poc are left in pain for significantly longer than men.  And not just in the ER, but sometimes for years. 

 
Why? Why does this happen?

You can't ignore that white cis men have certain societal privileges, leftover from a thousand years of being the top dogs.  I have nothing against white cis males - my problem is with the people that afford them the privilege at the expense of others.  There's a historical connection that can't be ignored -  for example, studies have shown in the case of women, doctors are much more likely to assume women’s pain is caused by emotional issues and/or hysterics rather than rooted in actual physical causes. 

EVEN WHEN CLINICAL TESTS CLEARLY DEMONSTRATE THEIR PAIN IS REAL AND IDENTIFIABLE.

Not only that, but women with emergent or chronic pain are much more likely to be misdiagnosed as having a mental health issue and prescribed anti-anxiety or psychotropic drugs.  I guess that's progress from the forced masturbation doctor's prescribed in the 1800s.  Additionally, lady folk with biologically female issues in the ER and out of the ER, who complain of pain associated with fibroids or endometriosis are still often dismissed in high numbers as having pain “normal to being a woman.”

It boils down to doctors believing women are more emotional and irrational than men, and so over exaggerate their pain, if they are actually having pain at all.

This isn't anecdotal - Karen Calderone, for example, found doctors tend to treat men and women differently when they’re in pain, even when they exhibit the same symptoms.  And they’re given sedatives instead of pain-managing drugs.  Because the pain is in their head and will go away if they get their hysterical vaginas under control. 

WTAF.

The internalized discrimination is immense in the medical community. 

In 2016 nearly 50% of those medical students and residents surveyed believed at least one myth regarding race and pain – like believing black people had nerve endings that are less sensitive than whites.  Uh, what? Like, what the what?

Doctor’s also erroneously believe that women and persons of color are more likely to become addicted to painkillers, because they’re more likely to abuse them.

​And these are only a few examples. 

If you’re attractive? Ha.  Good luck to you.  The ER is one place that shit will work against you.  Why? Because is you’re pretty on the outside, it means you’re healthier on the inside and therefore you’re less likely to be treated for serious health issues. 

Yikers.

​Basically, unless you’re a white, heterosexual male, you’re kinda fucked.  Older? Told the pain is part of aging and to suck it up.  LGBTQ?  Hysterical.  Children? Whiney. 

The list goes on.

So what kind of ramifications does this have? The answer is….a lot.

Medical research on women lags behind, and it's killing us - A study published in 2000 by The New England Journal of Medicine found that women were SEVEN TIMES more likely to be discharged from an ER in the MIDST OF HAVING A HEART ATTACK.  Why? Because all the studies on heart attack symptoms are done on men and women have different symptoms. 

What about abdominal pain? Head pain? Back pain? Pain is an indication that something is wrong.  Get the pain under control and then figure that shit out.  Don’t send us home.  Don’t ignore us.  Don’t patronize us.  When you do, we live in pain and illness much longer than necessary.  Sometimes, it's never treated. 

Women and persons of color are also less likely to seek medical attention, out of fear of being dismissed or ignored.  So the problem worsens.  Or we just die.   

I run a group for misfits - those that don't fit the stereotype of the "typical" outdoor person.  Outdoors adventures.  Sometimes we're going to get hurt.  Sometimes we're going to have chronic problems and/or pain.  We also deserve to be cared for, to be treated in a fair and equitable way.  When you don't, you further limit our access.  Stop it. 

I posted what happened and I've now looked in to why it happened.  Next up, what can be done?  It's not enough to complain, I want to find solutions.  What do YOU think people can do? What the solution is?  Post below or contact me here.