Doctors rarely prescribe pain medication for women
In the emergency room, men are more likely to receive pain medication than women, according to a study from the USA and Israel. The reason, researchers suggest, is a persistent bias in the medical profession. This could have serious consequences for women's health.
Women are less likely to receive a prescription for pain medication after visiting the emergency room than men, according to a study using data from the USA and Israel. This gender difference persists regardless of whether the treatment is provided by a male or female physician. The results were published in the journal "PNAS".
"Under-treatment of pain in female patients could have serious health implications for women, potentially leading to longer recovery times, complications, or chronic pain conditions," explains Shoham Choshen-Hillel. The professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem led the study, which analyzed over 20,000 electronic patient records from Israel and the USA.
Felix Walcher, president of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive and Emergency Medicine (DIVI), says it's not possible to scientifically answer whether these findings can be applied to Germany. "In Germany, we do not currently collect data on medication administration in emergency rooms, let alone gender-specific medication."
Assumption: Women exaggerate pain
Choshen-Hillel and colleagues suspect that the study's results reflect a gender bias: "It is assumed that women describe their pain as more severe than men," they explain. This stereotype is prevalent among both men and women in the medical profession. Another possible reason, according to the researchers, is that men more frequently request pain medication than women. The research team calls for training for clinical staff to address this potential under-treatment of women with pain medication.
In Israel, 38% of women who came to the emergency room with pain received a prescription for a pain-relieving medication, compared to 47% of men. Gender differences were consistent across levels of pain severity, from mild to severe, and across all age groups.
Women also had to wait an average of 30 minutes longer in the emergency room for treatment than men. Additionally, "We found that nurses record pain scores less frequently for women than for men," the study authors write. Pain severity is typically measured on a scale of 1 to 10.
Despite medical guidelines recommending that all patients with severe pain receive pain medication, this was only the case for 50% of women and 59% of men in Israel. The analysis of American data confirmed these trends, albeit with slightly different percentages.
Experiment confirms hospital data
The researchers invited medical staff and nurses from the University of Missouri Health Care Hospitals to participate in an experiment. A total of 109 people participated, 96% of whom were nurses and 85% were women. They were presented with either a description of a patient with severe back pain or a patient with severe back pain, with only the gender differing.
Participating healthcare personnel rated the pain intensity of female patients lower than that of male patients. "The results of the clinical scenario study suggest that healthcare providers may underestimate the pain reports of women compared to those of men," the article states. Walcher, who is also the director of the Clinic for Trauma Surgery at the University Hospital of Magdeburg, supports studies like this on pain medication in Germany. Medical care varies significantly across different countries. "Therefore, one should really let the facts speak - and use the study as an opportunity to take a closer look in Germany." Through the so-called AKTIN emergency room registry, it would be possible to obtain initial anonymized information in a few months.
Despite the need for all patients with severe pain to receive pain medication, only 50% of women in Israel and slightly less in America were provided with such treatment, according to the analysis. Interestingly, this gender discrepancy in pain medication prescription was also observed in the hospital experiment, where healthcare professionals rated female patients' pain as less intense compared to male patients.
