Women’s Pain

Why Is Women’s Pain So Often Dismissed?

Health care providers can be quick to conclude that women’s pain isn’t so bad or is “all in their head”—an attitude that can lead to prolonged suffering and can put women’s health at serious risk.

Michelle

Michelle was 11 years old when the pain began. That’s when she first got her period, with cramps so excruciating they made her vomit. “We went to see my family doctor at the time and she dismissed it, saying, ‘There’s nothing wrong with you. Everybody gets cramps. Just take Advil.’” But the pain got worse when Luciani was a teen. The same doctor put her on birth control, which dulled the intensity slightly. Nevertheless, she came to expect that once a month, she’d feel a twisting in her pelvis and experience stabbing cramps that jolted through her like electrical shocks. Her doctor continued to tell her that cramps were normal.

After high school, Michelle moved from Toronto to Vancouver to study media arts. One day, she experienced a new kind of pain in her abdomen. “It went from a five to a 20 very fast,” she recalls. She hurried to the hospital, where staff found fluid in her abdomen, caused by a ruptured ovarian cyst. Once again, Michelle was told, “There’s nothing to worry about—it’s normal.” The physician gave her morphine and sent her home. But throughout the course of the year, more cysts ruptured, and each time, Michelle faced the same message in the emergency room: “You just have to get through it.”

When she was 25, Michelle found a gynecologist who told her the symptoms sounded like endometriosis, which occurs when the uterine lining grows in other areas of the pelvis, where it doesn’t belong. He booked her in for exploratory surgery to look for signs of the painful chronic condition, but in the end, he didn’t find anything wrong.

Michelle was filled with hopelessness. She’d been sure she had endometriosis, but a doctor was telling her that wasn’t true. In too much agony to work, she moved back to Toronto, where her family lived. She searched for a new doctor who could help her, but after reading the report from her surgery, each health practitioner said the same thing: since the procedure hadn’t led to a diagnosis, nothing was wrong with her. She was told the pain was in her head and was offered antidepressants but never a solution for the pain. “I just felt crazy at that point,” she recalls.

Finally, at age 26, after having consulted with five doctors since her initial surgery, Michelle found one in Atlanta, Georgia who was willing to repeat the procedure. She paid nearly CAD $40,000, and this time, the results were conclusive: she had endometriosis. Three years later, she would also be diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome, a condition that affects women’s hormone levels and can result in cysts in the ovaries.

She’s Not The Only

Michelle isn’t the only woman to spend years having her pain dismissed, or to be forced to advocate for herself with doctor after doctor simply to secure a diagnosis. A 2006 study published in the British Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology interviewed women with chronic pelvic pain and concluded that “most felt that their pain and suffering had not been legitimized by at least one doctor that they had seen.”

Over the past few decades, researchers have found that women’s pain is often taken less seriously than men’s and, as a result, it frequently goes untreated or undertreated in Western medicine. There is no lab test to evalu­ate pain, so it’s up to a patient to describe their experience—and up to their doctor to believe them. But, as Luciani learned, health care providers can be quick to conclude that a woman’s pain isn’t so bad or is “all in her head”—an attitude that can lead to prolonged suffering and can put women’s health at serious risk.

Based from : https://www.readersdigest.ca/health/conditions/womens-pain-undiagnosed/

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Personally, I’ve has to deal with this. Like Michelle, I started having menstrual cramps as soon as I started my period. It was long& heavy. GP put me on birth control pills at the time. My cycle regulated, was a little less heavy, but cramps got really bad some days, I’d be curled up in a ballin the nurse’s office at school or if they kicked in at college, curled up in the women’s lounge couch. Eventually my cramps became almost constant. Referred to Gyn who referred me to GI Diagnosis, IBS. IBS controlled, referred back to Gyn. He told me “I don’t think it is Endometriosis, but if you insist, I will do the surgery.” I insisted & guess who was right! Because she didn’t think she’d need all the tools, she was missing some from the first surgery. That resulted in a full laparotomy 6 months later with a full inverse T incision and 12 weeks unable to work, recovering. 12 years from onset to initial diagnosis.

I dont even want to get into my fibro diagnosis . We believe that diagnosis took 13 years. With another 15 to get it ‘controlled‘

Based on an article in reader’s digest. The original can be found Here

Symptoms You Should Never Ignore – Misc

11/20 Lump Near Your Neck

Don’t Worry:
Spread out in a network, your lymph nodes are bean-shaped glands that play an important role in your immune system. When bacteria, viruses or other foreign substances invade your body, your lymph nodes can feel swollen and hard with all the white blood cells piling in to fight off the assault. Once you’re done battling whatever it was, they will go back to normal.

Do Worry:
If you feel the lump in the hollow above either collarbone—where your supraclavicular lymph nodes are—these can be important sentinels for disease in your abdomen. If it happens on your left side specifically, it’s called Troisier’s sign, and it’s considered an indication of cancer in the stomach or other organs, even if you have no other symptoms. See your doctor as soon as possible.

12 / 20 Cold Hands

Don’t Worry:
Genetics can be the reason you often have cold hands, even in summer—research shows it runs in families. The elderly, who tend to have slower circulation, as well as very thin people without much insulation, can also feel more sensitive to cold, especially in the extremities. Avoiding nicotine and caffeine, which restrict blood vessels, and dressing in layers to keep your core temperature up can help.

Do Worry:
Raynaud’s phenomenon, which affects 10 per cent of the population, is a vascular abnormality characterized by attacks of cold, pain, tingling or burning, and white or bluish colour in the fingers. It can be managed with medication, but in some cases, Raynaud’s can be a sign of an autoimmune disease called scleroderma.

Anemia, caused by low iron levels, can also make your hands and feet feel cold, and is also linked to fatigue, dizziness and chest pains. Iron supplements can help restore your hemoglobin levels.

13 / 20 White Marks on Your Nails

Don’t Worry:
Nails can reveal some important things about your health. Those mysterious dots or lines on your fingernails—called leukonychia—are usually caused by bumping or pinching the skin under your cuticle where your nails start to grow. They’re usually harmless and take six to nine months to grow out completely. If a spot looks yellowish and you can see thickening of the nail, that could indicate a fungal infection that requires a topical prescription.

Do Worry:
If the bands are vertical and dark-coloured, see your doctor as soon as possible. “In a fair-skinned person, these can indicate subungual melanoma, a rare form of skin cancer under the nail,” says Tran. Darker-skinned people do get bands like this normally as they age, but if you notice new stripes or a change in their thickness, it warrants further investigation for melanoma

Based on an article in Reader’s Digest byAnna-Kaisa Walker

Allodynia

Allodynia – That’s the technical term for feeling your skin 24/7. My skin is so sensitive that a gentle breeze can trigger a pain response on a bad day. Pants are torture, but skirts are worse. I hate leggings because they make me constantly aware of my skin. Which I assure you is not nearly as much fun as it sounds.

A quick anatomy lesson for the integumentary system (hair, nails, skin and sweat glands) your skin is by far the largest organ you have. It’s not just a meat sack holding your body together. There are billions of nerve receptors in your skin. They are designed to bypass the rational mind and are hardwired into your subconscious or reflexive mind. This is why you move your hand away from the flame before you even realize you’re burning. There are about 2 billion or so nerve endings in the outermost layer of skin. More in the under layers, the hair, sweat glands etc. They are there to alert us to potential danger and to alert the brain that we have been damaged.

You have different nerve receptors for different things. Some are ticklish. Some detect change in Temperature. Some itch. And some say OUCH!

Now imagine if something happened and suddenly all of the receptors start telling your brain OUCH. Meaning that breeze causes pain, the brush of your hair across your skin causes pain, warmth/cold causes pain. Sound vibrations caues pain. Clearly this is a problem with the wiring. But they don’t know what it’s caused by.

When my skin hurts I don’t want delicate gentle touch, I want specific, firm and with intention touch. I want clear and obvious sensation (think stingy and thuddy rather than feathery or ticklish)

Author – Unknown.

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I do get this myself. Mine is thankfully on & off . Like the OP, I prefer firm contact, but I also need to know it’s coming. It’s easier to just have no contact at all tbh.

It’s weird. If I’m sensitive with this, a hair that falls out of my head & lazily makes its way down my back or my arm can be excruciating at worst, mildly painful at best.

I even have a “Don’t Touch Koolaid” Necker for Cubs. Meaning they know they can not touch me when I’m wearing it. They don’t understand why – just that it hurts me alot if they do on those days. Fortunately, I don’t have to wear it often

I’m Sick

So last week was Cub Camp. When I got home, I brought in my personal gear, showered & crashed out for 4 hours. I was exhausted – literally done. I couldn’t have done anything else.

Then due to one of my Cubs, I’ve been down with a nasty bug ever since. The worst is the cough.. that & the boredom of nothing to do. I’ve got no new books to read & I’m up to date on my shows.

I hate being sick I feel so useless. Can barely function. It’s bad enough with the fibro & everything else, but when I’m sick it’s so much worse. 😢