February 4, 2004
The Women In Pain informational hearing, held in Sacramento and co-sponsored by the Legislative Women’s Caucus and Senate Health & Human Services Committee, delves deeply into the topic of Women in Pain; in particular, it gains a more thorough understanding of the issues surrounding under-diagnosis of chronic pain and the role of gender in the undertreatment of pain, and if there are legislative remedies to this health crisis. Also, it is announced that February is Women In Pain Awareness month in the Golden State.

January 2004
Diane Hoffmann (University of Maryland School of Law, Maggie Buckley (Ehlers Danlos National Foundation), Susan Shinagawa (Intercultural Cancer Council), Dr. Kathryn Padgett (American Academy of Pain Management), Dr. Scott Fishman (Pain Medicine, UC Davis Medical Center) among others agree to testify at the Women In Pain hearing.

December 2004
Toussaint and Metune jointly determined the best grouping and sequencing of potential speakers. They break the hearing into three panels; Framing the Issue, Personal Stories and Academic Research Perspective and Response From the Medical Community.

November 2003
Toussaint reaches out to contacts in the medical, support and education fields to find speakers to testify at the hearing. Also, she and Metune start the process of crafting the hearing focus and agenda.

October 2003
Both hearing and awareness month are rescheduled for February 2004 due to California Governor recall.

March 2003
The California Legislative Women’s Caucus (vice-chair, State Senator Liz Figueroa), via chief liaison Laura Mentune, agrees to sponsor Women In Pain information hearing; shortly thereafter, the Senate Health & Human Services (chair, State Senator Deborah Ortiz) committee is determined as the governing body to host hearing, originally scheduled for October to coincide with awareness month.

January 2003
Senator Nell Soto’s office agrees to sponsor Women In Pain awareness month, originally slated for October 2003. Jackie Koenig is assigned to marshal the awareness month through Senator Soto’s office.

October 2002
Toussaint begins process of contacting California State Senators, Assembly members and their respective staffs to try to get a legislator to carry awareness month resolution and to host informational hearing.

August 2002
Toussaint authors and posts on-line her Women In Pain petition that details the plight of women under treated for their pain and a Women In Pain Bill of Rights; signatures and testimonies pour in.

July 2002
Cynthia Toussaint has a vision of an official Women in Pain Awareness Month featuring an informational hearing in the California State Senate; gains inspiration from Diane Hoffmann’s report that appears in the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics titled, “The Girl Who Cried Pain; A Bias Against Women in the Treatment of Pain,” and the New York Times article, “Hurt More, Helped Less,” by Nancy Wartik.