Chronic Pain Australia (CPA) welcomes the release of the Bridging the Gender Pain Gap: Inquiry into Women’s Pain report by the Victorian Government — the first inquiry of its kind in Australia — and commends the commitment to develop a new Women’s Pain Standard to ensure women and girls receive compassionate, evidence-based care across hospitals and health services.
The inquiry’s findings mirror what Chronic Pain Australia has documented in its own research through the National Pain Survey 2025, Kids in Pain Report 2025, and reflected in the ‘Pain Takes a Nation’ White Paper: that pain dismissal, disbelief, and gender bias in healthcare are widespread, deeply harmful, and begin in childhood.
A lifetime of disbelief: from girlhood to womanhood
The Victorian inquiry that Chronic Pain Australia contributed to found that 71% of women had their pain dismissed or minimised by healthcare professionals. Chronic Pain Australia’s Kids in Pain Report revealed strikingly similar results among children, with 71% told their pain was due to anxiety, 54% dismissed as “growing pains,” and 49% told their pain was “normal.”
These patterns continue into adulthood. CPA’s National Pain Survey 2025 found that three in four adults living with chronic pain had experienced disbelief or stigma when seeking care, with women far more likely to be told their symptoms were psychological or exaggerated.
“The gender pain gap begins in girlhood and widens through adolescence — becoming a lifelong pattern of dismissal and delay,” said Nicolette Ellis, Chair of Chronic Pain Australia. “For generations, women and girls have been told their pain is in their heads. This report finally validates their experiences and gives governments the evidence needed to act.”
The cost of pain and lost potential
CPA’s Kids in Pain Report 2025 found that one in five Australian children lives with chronic pain, with 83% missing school, 57% falling behind academically, and 84% experiencing sleep disruption. The impact extends far beyond the child. 46% of parents adjust work hours, 30% take unpaid leave, and 19% resign entirely, with mothers disproportionately affected — costing Australia an estimated $15 billion annually in lost productivity.
“Behind every percentage is a child whose life has been reshaped by pain, and a mother who has had to leave work to care for them,” said Ellis. “The gendered nature of pain — and the economic cost of disbelief — must be recognised as both a health and equality issue.”
A call for national reform
Chronic Pain Australia welcomes the Victorian Government’s 27 recommendations, which include strengthening clinical education, investing in women’s pain services, and increasing research funding. However, the organisation urges a national rollout of these reforms to address inequities faced by women and children across Australia.
These findings align with CPA’s White Paper, which calls for:
– Recognition of chronic pain as a condition in its own right, not just a symptom.
– A National Women’s Pain Standard, developed in partnership with people with lived experience.
– Mandatory pain education across the healthcare and education sectors, ensuring clinicians and teachers recognise and support those in pain early.
– Dedicated funding for paediatric and women’s pain clinics, especially in regional and rural communities.
– Inclusion of pain in national data collection and research priorities, to drive policy and service reform.
You can read the full Whitepaper – Pain Takes a Nation: An Urgent Call for National Action on Chronic Pain – here.
“This inquiry gives us a roadmap for systemic change — but we cannot let it stop at Victoria’s borders,” Ellis said. “It’s time to establish a national standard that ensures every girl and woman, wherever she lives, can have her pain believed, assessed, and treated with respect.”