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logo Making your unknown known is the important thing - Georgia OKeefe
What's New Inspiration Our Story About For Grace About WIP
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Fact Sheet
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“I hope that my story will bring attention to the plight of women of color in pain, and other medically underserved women.”
  • Chronic pain is pain that lasts for months or years as a result of a chronic condition or lingers more than the usual recovery period for an illness. This includes common medical problems such as arthritis and migraine headaches as well as conditions such as Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy, Fibromyalgia, Interstitial Cystitis
    and Lupus.
  • Chronic pain causes sufferers to endure many hardships including loss of work or forced disability leave from work, loss of mobility and independence, strain on personal relationships and psychological stress.
  • According to the American Chronic Pain Association (ACPA), more than 80 million people in the United States suffer from chronic pain. Each year, Americans lose nearly $100 billion due to reduced productivity, sick time and medical costs associated with chronic pain (National Institute of Health, “New Direction in Pain Research,” Washington, D.C., GPO. 1998).
  • Chronic pain plagues people from all walks of life; however, women are statistically most prone to illnesses involving chronic pain. Despite the multitudes who suffer, women face a gender bias in pain treatment and management, remaining conspicuously under-diagnosed.
  • According to a landmark study published in the Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics, women’s pain reports are taken less seriously than men’s, and women receive less aggressive treatment for their pain.
  • Gender inequities in pain diagnosis and treatment must be exposed and understood. Doctors must understand that women’s pain is tactile, not psychological.
  • Medical students must be properly educated in pain management and aware of the discrepancies in treatment in order for tomorrow’s doctors to treat today’s problems.
  • Physician’s groups and government organizations, such as the Office of Women’s Health, must take pain management seriously and move to provide equitable treatment for all those who suffer.