After covering health stories for more than a decade, many involving women’s health, I’ve noticed a recurring pattern: Women living in significant pain can become very good at enduring it.
One 18-year-old I interviewed had chronic headaches so severe she spent most of her childhood and teenage years “at home, in pain”. Others have expressed the relief of finally being believed, becoming emotional as they recount their experiences.
A 29-year-old became tearful as she recounted how a doctor finally took her complaints about intense period cramps seriously enough to investigate. It was severe endometriosis, which had invaded her fallopian tube, colon and rectum.
These stories made me wonder how much pain they were expected to put up with, and why persistent pain seemed more common in women.
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