Research round-up

From the time Hippocrates declared that ‘hysteria’ was a womanonly affliction and related to the uterus, women have often had to battle to get their pain acknowledged by medical practitioners and taken seriously. A new study from the US, Gender biases in estimation of others’ pain, reveals a tendency to underestimate pain in female patients related to gender stereotypes, that can lead to under-recognition and undertreatment of pain.

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Read the abstract or download the full research article: www.jpain.org/article/ S1526-5900(21)00035-3/fulltext

New Zealand’s Health Navigator website says that one in ten New Zealand women will suffer from endometriosis, which at its worst can result in difficulty conceiving or even infertility. In 2020, a New Zealand health taskforce released a comprehensive guide to the issues of diagnosing and effectively managing endometriosis, aimed at GPs and hospital doctors. A major aim of the taskforce was to raise awareness of endometriosis to aid early detection. “Endometriosis starts young, but it generally isn’t being diagnosed in young women,” says Deborah Bush, CEO of Endometriosis New Zealand in an article in GP Pulse. “Delays in diagnosis can lead to more serious long-term effects that could have been avoided or reduced if picked up earlier.”

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Read more about the new endometriosis pathway in GP Pulse – the online magazine of The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners: www.rnzcgp.org.nz Read the guidelines on the Ministry of Health website: www.health.govt.nz Learn more about the symptoms and how to manage endometriosis on Health Navigator: www.healthnavigator.org.nz

Here at KiwiParent we’ve been following with interest the progress of the petition for improved care for New Zealand women post birth. The online petition started by personal trainer Kirsty Watt is demanding more information on pelvic floor dysfunction for pregnant women, more funding for DHBs and Continence NZ, and improved ACC cover for the one in four women who experience pelvic-related issues after giving birth. It closed in March, with more than 55,000 signatures. An official House of Representatives petition will now be submitted. Read our feature stories on childbirth in this issue that address the variety of physical and mental health concerns that can impact women after they have birthed their babies.

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Read about the petition at www.change.org (search for ‘NZ post birth’) Read backgrounders and women’s stories: Radio NZ’s website www.rnz.co.nz/news/ national/438737/better-postnatal-carepetition-closes-with-55-000-signatures NZ Herald website tinyurl.com/4y6zjhz9

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