One day, as I scrolled through social media, a post appeared on my explore page. In the video, a man facing a woman exclaims: “Childbirth is the closest thing women can experience to understanding the pain of a common cold for a man.” I took a second to digest what I had just heard as I scrolled through comments filled with even more hurtful, dismissive remarks towards women and their relationship to pain. With the outcome of the recent presidential election, as women’s contraceptive access is being attacked, it is time to get the record straight about women’s pain and how it is managed. More than half of women take birth control for reasons beyond preventing pregnancy, typically to manage pain related to sex-specific conditions. It is essential to spread awareness of the misunderstandings of women’s health in relation to pain and sex-specific conditions and why contraceptives are often the only solution.

According to Harvard Medical School, 70 percent of those who experience chronic pain are women, yet 80 percent of pain studies are conducted on male men or mice. The lack of female medical recognition has resulted in a lack of understanding for women with chronic pain. Chronic pain is medically proven for women with specific, definable conditions. This burden is further amplified by sex-specific diseases such as endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Endometriosis is listed as the 14th most painful condition, according to Medical Life Sciences, just a few points away from kidney stones. However, the cause of endometriosis is unknown and incredibly understudied.

The misunderstanding and stigmatization of female pain stems from gender bias in clinical research and a lack of research on women’s health. According to a report published in the National Library of Medicine, this bias is known as “androcentricity” (the practice of prioritizing a masculine point of view over other perspectives, which can marginalize femininity). Throughout history, this has manifested through inaccurate diagnoses of “hysteria” and modern discrepancies in the diagnosis and management of female conditions, with the average diagnosis time for endometriosis being 7-10 years. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, it was not until 1993 that the United States Congress passed a law requiring the inclusion of women in clinical research. The lack of female representation in medical trials has caused women to experience adversity despite representing more than half (51 percent) of the U.S. population since 1946. For example, women experience side effects from medications at a rate that is doubled compared to men, and it was not until 1999 that the American Heart Association recognized that women experience different symptoms than men for heart disease– a leading cause of death for women and men. Discrepancies in medical research cause excess pain and confusion for women and put their lives at risk when their symptoms are not recognized and they cannot get the lifesaving treatment they need.
Female sex-specific conditions, such as endometriosis, are severely under-researched The cause of endometriosis is unknown and there is currently no definitive treatment or cost-friendly diagnosis process. In fact, according to the National Library of Medicine research, the diagnosis requires expensive surgical visualization and histological confirmation, resulting in six out of ten undiagnosed cases. Direct reduced quality of life and economic decline have been reported from this condition, making the pain extend far beyond physical.
Many women who have endometriosis and other hormonal-related conditions use birth control to treat their symptoms. According to the Guttmacher Institute, in 2011, more than half of users — 58 percent — took it for reasons other than preventing pregnancy. The leading causes for taking birth control aside from contraception include reducing cramping or menstrual pain, menstrual regulation, acne treatment and endometriosis. One must consider how Trump’s administration may threaten access to birth control and how that impacts 58 percent of women in America who use birth control for reasons other than pregnancy prevention. At Redwood, 62 percent of students reported knowing a Redwood student consuming birth control, and 24 percent of female students reported taking it in a December 2023 Bark survey. According to the New York Times, Google Search data showed that searches for “birth control” and “Plan B” doubled following Trump’s election in early November. This data highlights women’s concerns about access to contraceptives during his term, given that Trump has had close ties with Project 2025, a detailed plan outlining an anti-rights agenda that lists numerous strategies to limit abortion access and reproductive services. One bullet from that list is: “End access to medication abortion — used in 63 percent of abortions in the U.S.” Another says: “Prosecute people for shipping and transporting abortion pills and supplies.”
During the Biden-Harris administration, the Affordable Care Act implemented regulations that guaranteed coverage of women’s prevention services, including birth control and contraception, at no cost for women who are enrolled in health plans or have individual health insurance. If the incoming Trump administration allows employers and schools to use religious or moral exemptions to prevent employee access to birth control, as the White House did during Trump’s first term, this benefit would be taken away; in that case, it may lead to out-of-pocket costs that can make contraceptives unaffordable for many.
Although California is safe as long as no national law is passed to ban abortion and contraceptives — written into the state constitution is Proposition 1, that reproductive freedom is a constitutional right — it is still worrisome for residents as they plan to pursue higher education around the country. It is time to finally understand that women’s pain is nowhere near equivalent to a common cold. It is critical to address the lack of medical recognition and treatment and the hurtful, misleading comments based on androcentricity. With over half of U.S. females taking birth control for reasons other than pregnancy prevention, most often for pain management, it is unacceptable to attack birth control. The stigmatization of women’s pain for intersexual and sex-specific conditions, such as endometriosis, must be dismantled for the gender that makes up more than half of the U.S. population.