Article about pain

[firecat]

I expect this UPI article will be all over my reading list but I have to put in my own pocket change before I even go look.

It's annoying that they are being all gender-essentialist about it, but if they're going to be that way, it's good that they are acknowledging that women feel more pain, because usually women's pain is downplayed and ignored.

But then they manage to downplay it anyway. "Let's treat the emotions." Let's get a woman living with pain to say "it's all about just not caring whether you have pain." And not once is it mentioned that maybe we should believe women who have pain, and give them pain medicines to manage their pain.

"Pain different for women, men"
ATLANTA, Aug. 13 (UPI)
(Full article quoted. Emphasis mine.)

Chronic pain is more intense and
lasts longer for women than men and a higher proportion of women
suffer from diseases that bring such pain, doctors say.
Jennifer Kelly of the Atlanta Center for Behavioral Medicine
in Georgia says women have more recurrent pain and more disabilities
from pain-causing illnesses such as fibromyalgia, rheumatoid
arthritis and irritable bowel syndrome, CNN reported Friday.
Hormones could be one reason women bear this burden of pain,
Kelly said, noting the menstrual cycle can be associated with
changes in discomfort among women with chronic pain.
Pain also can have long-lasting consequences, studies show.
Women who suffer menstrual cramps have significant brain structure
changes compared with women who don't, one study found, while other
studies have revealed abnormal brain structure changes in people
with disorders such as chronic back pain and irritable bowel
syndrome.
Women tend to focus on pain on an emotional level, worrying
about how it will affect their responsibilities, whereas men focus
on the sensory aspect, Kelly said, urging doctors to help women deal
with negative thoughts that can make a painful situation worse.
One woman who suffers from arthritic conditions agrees
patients with chronic pain need help changing their mind-set about
pain.
"Part of what helped me was switching out the model in which
I had to be pain free to be happy," Melanie Thernstrom says.
"Realizing I can have some pain, just like it can be raining outside
and I can be happy -- it's all a matter of what level the pain is
at."

Comments

[ailbhe]

I can't even.

[amethystfirefly]

-just headdesks-

[eggcrack]

That is beyond disgusting.

[laughingrat]

*screams, flails*


People! Augh! It's one thing to approach chronic pain from a mental perspective because it helps and you choose that, but it's another to prescribe that option as the best or primary approach because, shucks, why would we wanna alleviate ladies' pain? Ffft, those ladies. What do they know about "real" pain? *more flailing*

[flarenut]

Among the things that are going on here is that for the physically fit, which tends to include self-righteous doctors, pain is something you choose, and something that you wear as a badge of your hard work keeping your body healthy (yeah, right). When I hung out with (male) runners, many of them seemed to be happy only when they had some borderline injury they were tending.

So someone who doesn't choose pain, whose body just inflicts it on them, must either have made some terrible choice in the past, or must be broken in kinds of way that many doctors don't want to deal with.

And meanwhile this is what, 20 years after serious talk about pain management started in the lay press?

[yifu]

Women tend to focus on pain on an emotional level, worrying
about how it will affect their responsibilities, whereas men focus
on the sensory aspect

Because all women and men react to pain similarly, duh.
The dismissive attitude of the article is just.

[submarine_bells]

I dunno, in my experiences with chronic pain, painkillers actually don't work that well, at least in an ongoing basis. They're good to have available for the times that the pain gets really obnoxious or unmanageable, but there are no strong painkillers available, to my knowledge, that don't have problematic side effects. So taking painkillers all the time isn't really practical.

I'm all for putting money and effort into researching painkillers that work better without unhelpful side effects; but until we have those, then yes, pyschological pain management IS helpful and useful to improve everyday coping with chronic pain. My time with a pain management specialist getting help in working through some of my psychological issues about pain that was making it a lot worse for me was very helpful. I can't take painkillers every day, and there is no painkiller on earth that will touch a heavy-duty migraine once it settles in; but learning to deal with pain helps all the time.

[firecat]

I do think psychological pain management is helpful.

And I think an article that's supposed to be about "women's experience of chronic pain" that doesn't even mention pain medicines is woefully inadequate in a way in which my culture is routinely woefully inadequate in the way it addresses women's health conditions.

For some people, pain meds work well to manage their chronic pain, and don't cause problematic side effects. Those people should have access to pain meds. But often (maybe this is just in the US though) they don't have access because doctors believe that women's pain is all in their heads or that young women never have chronic pain and therefore if they ask for pain meds they must be drug-seeking addicts.

[ailbhe]

That is so not just in the US. Another version is "if the first pain meds we try don't work for you the pain must not be real."

[selki.livejournal.com]

"if the first pain meds we try don't work for you the pain must not be real."

D-:

[urocyon]

Yep. And that's on top of the "take these NSAIDs and never call me again" update on the classic, no matter what is causing the pain. (Not inflammatory? Not going to help.) If you mention that NSAIDs tear your stomach up, the pain must not be real, you drug-seeking person you.

On the original article, yeah, I've had to work on psychological pain management. In part because it's so hard to get proper treatment. I wish I were surprised by the dismissive piece of crap. :/

[urocyon]

I forgot to add that, this said, things were almost unbelievably bad the last time I was back in the US (2008; I'm living in the UK). I get the impression that the situation is worse there.

Though it didn't help that in the area I'm from, prescribing is under lots of extra DEA scrutiny from the "hillbilly heroin" scapegoating. Which translates to an awful lot of hillbillies in untreated pain. The doctor I ended up seeing had a new policy of not prescribing any opioids whatsoever (really handy when I could hardly walk with my back out, while doing 24/7 nursing!), and my terminally ill mom could not get anything like adequate pain relief until she got hospice care.

[firecat]

The doctor I ended up seeing had a new policy of not prescribing any opioids whatsoever

Wow. That's extreme.

[serene]

This makes me want to cause someone pain.

[ailbhe]

I'll help.

grrr.

[spiderdust.livejournal.com]

This article seems to turn the blame on the person in pain. It might as well say, "You're miserable and hurting because you haven't developed proper coping skills." >:(

[loracs.livejournal.com]

This article gives a headache. Maybe if I can just think more like a man, then this mind splitting headache will hurt less. Yep, that's the ticket - NOT!

[nisi-la.livejournal.com]

Diagnosed with fibro eight years ago, and whaddyaknow, I got depressed at the thought that I had an uncurable medical condition promising me pain for the rest of my life. Doctor prescribed prozac. Not pain meds. No, that would be too dangerous. Might lead to dependency or addiction.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Lyrica is being advertised for fibro -- you should know that it's $700/month.

[nisi-la.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the thought. But Lyrica=40% success rate, and "side effects" to boot.

I'm actually having some success allaying pain with exercise and changes in diet. Also trying different thyroid meds. And I got some pain meds from a dentist for back-up.

[e4q.livejournal.com]

in the uk cost is less of an issue, although not if you want to take supplements, and i do take lyrica, but i can only take a third of the recommended dose because the tinnitus i get as a side effect ends up being somehow worse than pain. i have no idea if the amount i take makes ANY difference. fibro is a cunning enemy, and medication isn't much better. the best thing i did for myself was to get a dog. i may be in as much pain but i am less unwell as a result.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

I hurt all the time and it's impossible not to have some parts hurt more than others at times. I just take pain meds for the big pains.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

Women tend to focus on pain on an emotional level, worrying
about how it will affect their responsibilities, whereas men focus on the sensory aspect

Once again I land on the "male" side of a scale.

[firecat]

I do both.

[e4q.livejournal.com]

i think most people do both, in reality. the pain management course i trained in treats people of both genders, what becomes clear is that everybody suffers, but it is good to learn some ninja skills for dealing with it. the humbling thing is that there is space for people on the course to tell a bit about their pain, and one woman said it was the first time she had described her pain and not had someone jump in with suggestions for how she should get rid of it.

[sashajwolf.livejournal.com]

Speaking as someone who has several of the chronic conditions mentioned there, I think both meds and a change in mindset (e.g. via cognitive-behavioural therapy) have a role, and both should be more widely available. I relied mainly on meds for years, but at its worst the pain broke through them, so I had to learn to enjoy life as much as I could despite it - and that stood me in good stead later, when I had to start tapering off the meds because of side effects. If I had my way, medicines would only need a prescription where using them incorrectly has the potential to affect others (as with antibiotics), and therapy would have a much shorter waiting list than it currently does on the NHS in the UK.

[firecat]

I do agree they both have a role. But it angers me that pain meds weren't even mentioned in the article.

[e4q.livejournal.com]

the idea that you can just think yourself better has me reaching for my fictional gun.

just as well we have gun laws here.