When you go to the doctor, you expect they’ll listen to your concerns and help fix whatever problem you may be experiencing. But many women, especially those suffering with chronic pain conditions, find the opposite is true. This can make it difficult for women to get the treatment they need.

For instance, researchers who interviewed endometriosis sufferers on their experiences with healthcare practitioners found many struggled to get the support they needed. As one participant put it, “you need to try so hard that they believe you, because they don’t. You experience that immediately, that they don’t believe you.”

In the UK, a survey by the Wellbeing of Women charity (which invests in research on women’s health) found that over half of female respondents felt their pain had been dismissed or ignored by a healthcare professional at some point. Women in other parts of the world – including North America, Australia and Europe – report similar experiences.

There’s a clear gender gap when it comes to identifying and treating women’s pain compared to men’s. For instance, women are less likely than men to have positive treatment outcomes for chronic conditions such as angina and musculoskeletal pain.

Physicians are four times more likely to recommend a knee replacement for a man than a woman with the same knee injury. The poorer quality care women received compared to men after suffering a heart attack was to blame for 8,243 preventable deaths between 2003-2013 in England and Wales.

The dismissal of women’s pain also leads to long delays in diagnoses and treatment for conditions such as polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and endometriosis.

The gender pain gap affects not only adults, but children and young people – with research showing young women are more likely to have their pain dismissed by physicians than young men.

The gender pain gap is even worse for black women, who are more likely than white women to have their pain dismissed and receive poorer pain treatment.

There also remains little research on pain treatment for gender diverse, transgender, non-binary and intersex patients which may mean these groups are even worse off when accessing treatment.

Gender pain gap Pervasive gender stereotypes are a key reason women’s pain is underestimated. These widely held stereotypes – held even by healthcare professionals – construct men as “stoic” and women as “emotionally expressive” when in pain.

Men are thought to be less likely to seek care for pain – so when they do, they are to be believed. In actuality, this is false, with research showing men are equally likely to go to the doctor when experiencing pain as women are.

Women are also believed to have a greater capacity to cope with pain because of the pain that accompanies menstruation and childbirth. These stereotypes mean women’s pain is viewed as “natural” and “normal” – and may not be taken as seriously by a practitioner.

One study, which had healthcare professionals watch videos of female and male patients experiencing chronic shoulder pain, found practitioners were more likely to underestimate women’s pain. They also reported the women, but not the men, would benefit from psychotherapy.

Other studies have shown healthcare practitioners are sometimes more likely to prescribe sedatives than pain medication to female patients experiencing pain.

Historically, women have been underrepresented in medical research and clinical trials. In the UK, only from 2024 will it be compulsory for new GPs to have training in women’s health.

This may somewhat explain the lack of knowledge practitioners have had in regards to women’s pain and their health concerns. And, women may be given medications and treatments that have only been trialled with men – despite female patients being more likely to experience side effects from new medications.

The gender pain gap cannot be addressed until disparities in medical research and funding are. Conditions which have a disproportional affect on women (such as migraines and endometriosis) receive “much less” funding relative to their severity and prevalence, while conditions which predominantly affect men (such as HIV) receive more funding – despite their lower prevalence.

Getting the right care Pain is never something you should accept and put up with. If you need to speak with a practitioner about your pain, there are many things you can do to ensure your voice is heard.

For example, telling your practitioner how pain affects your ability to function in your day-to-day can be more effective than trying to rate pain on a scale. Using an app or diary to track pain and related symptoms, and bringing it with you in the consultation room, can also be helpful.

If you’re comfortable, raise the issue of bias in pain care. Ask how your practitioner is ensuring you’re not part of the larger statistic of women feeling dismissed. Ask them to explain their diagnostic decision-making and how they’ve ruled out certain conditions. You can also ask them to note in your file why they haven’t made a referral for specialist care. This may be helpful if you return with the same symptoms later.

Bring a family member or friend to advocate for you if you don’t feel comfortable doing it alone. In the UK, you can also ask for a patient advocate, who will speak up for you and help you get the right care.

Addressing inadequate funding for conditions that affect women, improving training for practitioners and increased awareness of the gender pain gap, will all help ensure women in pain are no longer dismissed.

The International Chess Federation (FIDE) says it is temporarily banning transgender women from competing in its women's events.

The FIDE said individual cases would require "further analysis" and that a decision could take up to two years.

The move has been criticised by some players and enthusiasts.

Many sports governing bodies have been working on policies towards transgender athletes, but chess does not involve comparable levels of physical activity.

AUW organised for 148 Afghan women to go on the last US hanger out of Kabul. (...)

(...)AUW hopes to help more women - the goal is 1,000 - to continue their education by offering scholarships and a safe exit from Afghanistan.

A migraine is far more than just a headache – it’s a debilitating disorder of the nervous system.

People who have migraines experience severe throbbing or pulsating pain, typically on one side of the head. The pain is often accompanied by nausea, vomiting and extreme sensitivity to light or sound. An attack may last for hours or days, and to ease the suffering, some people spend time isolated in dark, quiet rooms.

About 800 million people worldwide get migraine headaches; in the U.S. alone, about 39 million, or approximately 12% of the population, have them regularly.

And most of these people are women. More than three times as many women as compared to men get migraines. For women ages 18 to 49, migraine is the leading cause of disability throughout the world. (...)

Women tend to experience accelerated ageing around the ages of 30 and 50, according to a study that analysed a wide range of molecular and physical markers. This may be due to hormonal changes that occur when some women give birth or go through the menopause.

In recent years, there has been growing recognition that ageing doesn’t always progress at the same pace and certain factors, such as stress and smoking, can speed it up. (...)

In 2008, archaeologists in Valencina, Spain, discovered a stunningly ornate tomb. The single-occupancy grave, a rarity in itself for the time, contained a treasure trove of valuables: a rock crystal dagger, high-quality flint, ostrich eggshells and ivory, including the tusk of an African elephant.

Dating to the Iberian Copper Age—some 5,000 years ago—it held an individual who likely died between the ages of 17 and 25. Assuming the tomb belonged to a wealthy, powerful leader, scientists called this individual the “Ivory Man.” But now, 15 years later, researchers have determined that the Ivory Man was actually an “Ivory Lady,” according to a study published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports.

To reach this conclusion, researchers used a new technique that can identify an individual’s sex based on tooth enamel. This process can be more effective than DNA analysis when studying remains in especially poor condition.

This new research shows that women could hold high-status roles in Iberian society at the time—and that this particular woman may have even been the “highest-ranked person” during her lifetime, says study co-author Leonardo García Sanjuán, an archaeologist at the University of Seville in Spain, to Live Science’s Jennifer Nalewicki. He adds that the Ivory Lady’s wealth and social status were impressive even when compared against a database of approximately 2,000 Copper Age burials in the region.

“The Ivory Lady totally stands out, head and shoulders above the rest, either male or female,” he tells Science’s Celina Zhao.

Researchers think that the Ivory Lady may have been revered for several generations, reports CNN’s Katie Hunt. Other graves and artifacts around her tomb date to as late as 200 years after her death.

Additionally, one nearby tomb—the only “comparably lavish” grave in the area, according to a statement announcing the new study—contains the remains of at least 15 women, suggesting that other women held leadership positions and high status during this period. (...)

The number of people dying in the U.S. from pregnancy-related causes has more than doubled in the last 20 years, according to a new study, published in JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association.

And while the study found mortality rates remain "unacceptably high among all racial and ethnic groups across the U.S.," the worst outcomes were among Black women, Native American and Alaska Native people.

The study looks at state-by-state data from 2009 to 2019. Co-author Dr. Allison Bryant, an obstetrician at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, says maternal death rates in the U.S. just keep getting worse. (...)

Shattering the myth of men as hunters and women as gatherers

The team found that regardless of their maternal status, women hunt in 79 percent of the societies they studied. Over 70 percent of female hunting also appears to be intentional, instead of opportunistic killing of animals encountered while doing other activities. Women’s intentional hunting appears to target game of all sizes, but was most often large game

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/509396

A painting has been saved for the UK in recognition of its “outstanding significance” for the study of race and gender in 17th-century Britain, it will be announced on Friday.

The anonymous artist’s portrait of two women – one black and one white, depicted as companions and equals with similar dress, hair and jewellery – has been bought by Compton Verney, an award-winning gallery in Warwickshire.

Titled Allegorical Painting of Two Ladies, the work, part of the English school dating to about 1650, appears to be a moralising picture, criticising the use of cosmetics in altering a person’s natural appearance.

Their faces are covered in curious beauty patches that were fashionable at the time and which the painting’s inscription condemns as a sin of pride, a widespread opinion in the 17th century.

Wearers of such patches or spots – made of silk or velvet – risked provoking the wrath of God. Part of the purpose of the patches was to hide imperfections or signs of disease. The white sitter wears black patches of various shapes and the black sitter has white ones.

The painting was at risk of permanently leaving the UK after being auctioned in Shropshire in 2021. A temporary stop to allow a UK institution to acquire it was placed by the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest.

The independent body, serviced by the Arts Council, advises the secretary of state for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport on whether a cultural object intended for export is of national importance under specified criteria.

Noting that its departure from the UK would be a “misfortune”, the committee’s report stated: “The depiction of a black female sitter in a 1650s painting was highly unusual … inviting important debate about race and gender during the period.”

It added: “It visualises in a way that no other painting of the period does the early modern debates concerning the morality of cosmetics use; discourses on ideal beauty and blackness; issues concerning gender hierarchy and female agency; as well as attitudes to race and ethnicity, especially so in an age that witnessed increasing global contact through trade and colonial expansion.”

(...) A new family of nonhormonal drugs that work directly on the body’s internal thermostat is offering hope for women who can't or don't want to use hormone replacement therapy (HRT).

Last month, the United States Food and Drug Administration approved a medication called fezolinetant for the alleviation of vasomotor symptoms, the medical term for hot flushes or flashes. The pill, sold under the brand name Veozah, is the first neurokinin-3 (NK3) receptor agonist approved by the U.S. regulator to reduce vasomotor symptoms caused by menopause.

Unlike HRT, which replaces the estrogen and progesterone women lose as their fertility wanes, NK3 receptor agonists block neural activity in an area of the brain that helps regulate body temperature. That internal control centre tends to malfunction when the brain is deprived of estrogen.

For menopausal women who can’t or won’t take HRT – many still fear the treatment because of an influential 2002 study that exaggerated the risks to women under 60 – the options for relief have been limited. The same is true for the minority of women for whom HRT doesn’t work.

Fezolinetant “could be a real game-changer,” said Wendy Wolfman, director of the menopause and premature ovarian insufficiency clinics at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. She is eager to have something new to offer cancer survivors who’ve been suffering through hot flashes and night sweats for as long as a decade. “Their life is hell,” Dr. Wolfman said.

It’s not clear when fezolinetant will be available in Canada. The drug’s Japanese maker, Astellas Pharma, has applied for approval in the European Union, Switzerland, Australia, Brazil and Israel, but has yet to submit an application to Health Canada. (The company said in an e-mail that it doesn’t have any details about a Canadian application to share at this time.)

It is also not clear how the new drug stacks up against HRT when it comes to alleviating hot flashes. Fezolinetant hasn’t been tested in a head-to-head trial against hormone therapy, said Stephanie Faubion, director of the Mayo Clinic Center for Women’s Health and medical director of the North American Menopause Society.

“It appears that it’s probably not going to be as effective as hormone therapy based on the phase three trials,” Dr. Faubion said. “But it is effective.”

They were leaders in building the early foundation of modern programming and unveiled the structure of DNA.

Their work inspired environmental movements and led to the discovery of new genes. They broke the sound barrier — and gender barriers along the way.

And inspiring more young women to pursue careers in science starts with simply sharing their stories.

Listen to women from across the (Obama) Administration tell the stories of their personal heroes across the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).