8 March, International Women’s Day. Why is this day even needed? In Sweden, we are considered to be fairly equal, yet there is still a lot to do. In my area of expertise, physical, long-term pain* and the brain, I have chosen to focus on helping women.
Why? Because women are the ones who receive less from the healthcare system, less attention, there is less research made on women and therefore treatments are often adapted from studies made on men.
In addition, I know what it means, both how pain and hormones affect the body and how to get up and move forward from setbacks, injuries, illnesses, etc.
My mission is both to help more women how to manage their pain in a better way and to break the stigma around pain and contribute to greater knowledge and understanding.
I don’t feel sorry for myself because I’ve lived with pain for most of my life, I use my knowledge and experience to create change for real.
Hormones and pain
Hormones are one reason why we need to look at women’s and men’s pain differently, our bodies have different hormones with different functions, and our hormones also affect our pain.
For example, pain sensitivity changes during the menstrual cycle. The days before and during menstruation we are more sensitive to pain, not only menstrual pain but also to other pain. This often means that women who live with long-term pain experience an increase in pain in our pain area as well, in addition to the menstrual pain.
Have you ever been asked by a doctor/physiotherapist or similar professional, where you are in your menstrual cycle when you come in for your pain?
Persistent pain in itself is like living with constant exhaustion, where we don’t get enough good sleep and if we also don’t give ourselves the daily recovery, there is a high risk that we also suffer from stress and exhaustion symptoms which in itself leads to long-term sickness absence and a lot of individual suffering.
Women are also more sensitive to stress, which is also due to our hormones (and is not at all about us being weaker).
If women were given the opportunity to plan their work and performance according to their menstrual cycle, many would perform much better, which in itself would lead to increased profitability and less loss of production.
Profitability and productivity
I find it strange that there are not more employers working to help people with pain at an earlier stage. Training both staff and managers in this area would reduce personal suffering and increase productivity and profitability.
In the primary health care system, there is generally very poor knowledge about long-term pain and how it affects people, so when people do seek the help they do not get adequate help for their pain.
Pain is not that “sexy/trendy”, few people talk about it and the pain doctors that do exist are unfortunately getting older and few new doctors are specializing in pain. This is going to be a big problem soon.
I meet people who question why I want to work with and help people with long-term pain.
“How many people are actually living with pain?”
“Surgery or painkillers are the only options, right?”
“It’s just to bite the bullet, isn’t it?”
Answer: About one in five people lives with long-term pain and no, surgery is not always possible and painkillers are not a long-term solution, and biting the bullet will not solve anything in the long run!
Long-term pain is estimated to cost society SEK 7.5 billion SEK each year in direct healthcare costs and SEK 80 billion SEK in indirect costs, mainly due to sick leave and lost production.
Read it again: 7.5 billion SEK in health care costs and 80 billion SEK due to sick leave and lost production!
EVERY YEAR!!!
Those are crazy numbers!
The personal suffering cannot be measured in crowns, but it is enormous!
Yet there is so much shame and stigma around pain. There are many people who don’t talk about their pain because they are ashamed, they are afraid of being called lazy, hypochondriacs, whiners, etc. Most of them want nothing more than to be able to live a “normal” life again.
Most people who come to me say they are “just surviving” and my happiest moment is when my clients say they have gone from “just surviving to be able to live a worthwhile life again”!
You are amazing, woman!
So to all the women out there, you are heroes living with a body that is in constant turmoil because of our hormones, hormones that allow us to create the most beautiful thing there is, new lives.
Today (and every other day of course) I want to salute you! 🙌💃✨❤️
Just being a woman is an amazing thing! Let’s keep fighting for an equal society, get more research on women to understand how we can treat and care for the female body in a much better way and let’s stand up for and support each other and celebrate each other’s successes!
Woman, you are amazing,
just the way you are! ❤️
With love, Cattis
PS. Would you like to know more about how I can help your company with training or how I can help you privately with managing long-term pain?
Schedule a short call and we can talk more about your/your company’s needs, or send me an email and tell me more about your challenges. Or if you’d like me to contact your boss directly, of course I will, just let me know who to contact.
*Long-term pain is physical pain that has lasted for at least three months, but it can pass after six months, a year, or a few years, it doesn’t have to last a lifetime.
Leave a Reply