The gender pain gap: Why health inequality still hurts?

You’ve heard of the gender pay gap, but what about the gender pain gap? Or the gender research gap? Despite all the progress we’ve made toward equality, there are still glaring gaps in healthcare that leave everyone who isn’t a cis man underserved, unheard, and often in pain.

So where do these gaps come from and what can we do about them? Let’s take a Lunette deep dive.

*Please note: We use the term “women” throughout this article to highlight historical bias, but we acknowledge that many people affected by these gaps do not identify as female.

What is the gender health gap?

You’d hope that science, medicine, and research fields built on facts would be immune to bias. But the truth is, your gender can impact the quality of care you receive. And if your gender intersects with race, class, or trans identity, the disparities can be even more severe.

Here are just a few stats that highlight the reality of the gender health gap:

Women are 25% less likely than men to receive pain relief;
Women are 50% more likely to be misdiagnosed during a heart attack;
Black women are 5 times more likely to die in childbirth;
It can take up to 12 years to get a diagnosis for endometriosis;
In 2024, 62% of women reported feeling their pain was dismissed by healthcare professionals – a 27% increase from 2023.

These gaps aren’t just frustrating, they’re dangerous.

The gender health gap herstory

To understand how we got here, we need to go way back. Historically, the female body has been misunderstood, ignored, and even feared. Even Aristotle often called the father of modern medicine described the female body as “a mutilated male.” Charming.

For centuries, doctors blamed symptoms like fatigue, anxiety, and sexual desire on a “wandering womb.” Later, these very normal experiences were labeled as hysteria, a supposed mental disorder that could land you in an asylum. And yes, that diagnosis stuck around until the 1980s.

While men have been at the center of medical research for millennia, accurate study of the female body only began in the last 100 years. We’ve got a lot of catching up to do.

Mind the research gap

You’d think that once doctors understood hormones and the menstrual cycle, things would improve. But instead, it created another barrier. Researchers claimed that female hormones introduced “too many variables” into clinical trials so they excluded women entirely. It wasn’t until the 1990s that the FDA mandated the inclusion of women in medical research.

The assumption? That male and female bodies were only different in terms of sexual organs. As Dr. Alyson McGregor puts it: “Women were just men with boobs and tubes.” This mindset explains why the world is designed for men, from phone sizes to office air conditioning. Annoying? Yes. Life-threatening? Sometimes.

The cost of the gap

Leaving women out of medical research has real consequences:

Crash test dummies are modeled on male bodies putting women at greater risk in car accidents;
Women have overdosed on medications like Ambien because dosing was based on male physiology;
Less than 2.5% of publicly funded research is dedicated to reproductive health;
Even pregnancy which affects 10% of women annually receives just 2% of research funding;
Erectile dysfunction (affecting 19% of men) receives 5x more research than PMS (affecting 90% of women).

Let that disparity speak for itself.

The pain of unconscious bias

A lack of research and funding creates a perfect storm, but unconscious bias adds fuel to the fire. In a study published in The Journal of Pain, participants watched videos of men and women in pain. Women were more likely to be dismissed as exaggerating, while men were taken seriously and prescribed medication. This bias is one reason 90% of people with endometriosis report being disbelieved when describing their symptoms.

What can we do?

Educate yourself

Knowledge is power. Read books like Sex Matters by Dr. Alyson McGregor and Invisible Women by Caroline Criado-Perez to understand the roots of medical bias.

Donate

Support organizations that fund research into reproductive health, like:

World Endometriosis Research Foundation;
Wellbeing of Women.

Use your voice

Nobody knows your body better than you and nobody should question your lived experience. Advocate for yourself in medical settings. Ask questions. Challenge dismissive attitudes. You deserve to be heard and believed.

The gender pain gap isn’t just a statistic, it’s a lived reality for millions. But by raising awareness, demanding better research, and speaking up, we can start to close it. At Lunette, we believe that healthcare should be inclusive, evidence-based, and free from bias. Because everyone deserves care that listens, respects, and empowers.

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photo: Dragan Vavan (Pinterest)