"You don't look ill." "It's just wear and tear." "Maybe you're working too hard." "That time of the month?" "I don't know how to help you." Just a few phrases women regularly hear when seeking help and support for dealing with pain. No wonder 49% of women feel their experience is ignored or dismissed, compared with 38% of men.
Last year, Nurofen published its first Gender Pain Gap Index Report. The pain-relief brand has now released a follow-up, which found "less than half of women surveyed receive a diagnosis for their pain within 11 months, compared with two-thirds of men." Aiming to help women get diagnosed and treated sooner, Nurofen has introduced the Pain Pass, an easy-to-use tool that empowers people to have more effective conversations with their healthcare providers.
The Pain Pass features a calendar for tracking pain, a burning-gnawing-throbbing vocabulary to articulate what they feel, and a scale for indicating how pain disrupts their life. It also outlines a strategy to use when facing gender bias, aided by the acronym PASS: Pause the conversation, Ask for clarity, Speak Up, Seek another opinion.
Nurofen is distributing printed copies of its Pain Pass folded down to credit card size as well as a downloadable PDF.
