Premier Jacinta Allan, Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas, and members of the Victorian Women’s Health Advisory Council launch the Bridging the Women's Pain Gap report.
The diagnosis and treatment of women and girls’ pain will improve as a result of the 27 recommendations in the Allan Government’s Bridging the Gender Pain Gap report.
The report’s recommendations, developed across seven key areas, promise a future Victorian healthcare system where women are heard and their pain is properly treated.
Premier Jacinta Allan and Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas launched the Inquiry into Women’s Pain report in early November.
The launch included the announcement of the first three initiatives:
- Rolling out green whistle pain relief. Nurses and midwives have long championed access to the green whistle to enable women to manage pain during IUD insertion.
- Setting a statewide standard for women’s pain care across the public healthcare system to provide consistent delivery of high-quality pain counselling and pain relief.
- a Royal Children’s Hospital clinic to support adolescents and girls as part of the government’s 20 women’s health clinics. Set to open in 2026, the clinic will focus on sexual and reproductive health and pain conditions such as endometriosis.
Speaking at the launch, Premier Allan said the inquiry and its report meant discussions about women and girls’ pain were now out in the open, shattering stigma and the culture of silence.
‘There’s a bit of a debate going on at the moment, yet again, about quotas, about more women in parliament.
‘Well, this is what happens when you have diversity of experience sitting around decision-making tables, driving policy change,’ Ms Allan said.
The inquiry was led by Safer Care Victoria and the Inquiry into Women’s Pain Subcommittee, together with the Victorian Women’s Health Advisory Council and the Department of Health.
ANMF (Vic Branch) Secretary Maddy Harradence is a member of the Victorian Women’s Health Advisory Council which the Allan Government established in September 2023 to guide strong investment in women’s health and to ensure a more central focus in health policy and funding.
Ms Harradence said ‘The report is a critical turning point for women’s health and ANMF will continue to work with the Victorian Government to deliver improved nurse and midwife led models of care and service delivery for Victorian girls and women experiencing pain in the future.
‘For far too long, women’s pain has been under-diagnosed and under-treated.
‘ANMF members told us they desperately need more research into women’s pain, that they need more comprehensive training into conditions and treatment options – we welcome the commitment to deliver these and other important reforms and ultimately, improve the lives of women.’
Inquiry into Women’s Pain findings
The inquiry found that many women have unmet healthcare needs, are neglected in research and are subject to sexism and misogyny that lead to the inappropriate management of women’s pain. This impact is further compounded for women living in regional and rural communities, or with a disability, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and LGBTIQA+ women.
The inquiry found in relation to experiences of pain and its impact:
- 90 per cent experienced pain lasting more than a year, and 54 per cent experienced daily pain
- 89 per cent said pain impacted their mental health
- The most common conditions were menstrual and hormonal (40 per cent), endometriosis (26 per cent) and musculoskeletal problems (26 per cent)
Barriers to accessing care included:
- 71 per cent cited dismissal by healthcare professionals
- 68 per cent said cost of seeking care was an obstacle
- Gender identity, race, disability and weight.
Inquiry into Women’s Pain recommendations
The report’s 27 recommendations for government, community, educational institutions, health institutions and health professionals. They cover seven areas:
- Women’s health research
- Policy strengthening
- Training and professional development
- Cultural change and public awareness
- Models of care
- Building our workforce
- Affordable and accessible care
Training and professional development recommendations include improving education and training opportunities for health services; embedding women’s health into medical education; the introduction of consistent sector-wide pain-related training requirements and a clinician advice service to support health workers access specialist women’s health and pain advice.
Nurses and midwives made up the majority of healthcare workers who participated in the inquiry and nurses and midwives will be central to delivering some of the key reforms recommended in the report.
The report acknowledges we need nurses and midwives, working to their full scope of practice, with more Medicare rebates for nurse practitioners and endorsed midwives, to close the pain gap.
One respondent in the healthcare professionals survey said: “Our health system is based on the male body as the standard and our culture is predominantly patriarchal. Understanding women’s health issues involves re-orientating our frameworks to be more inclusive of women’s lived experience as valid”.
More than 13,000 submissions
Women and girls, their carers, health professionals and peak bodies shared their experiences in more than 13,000 submissions to the inquiry which took place between January and October 2024.
ANMF’s submission to the inquiry [PDF] was based on a member survey that received almost 800 responses in four days. The responses and feedback overwhelmingly supported what ANMF nurses and midwives already knew; chronic pain affects a higher proportion of girls and women than men, but that women are less likely to receive appropriate treatment.
