Nurofen's Pain Pass offers women a practical tool for coping with healthcare's gender bias

"You don't look ill." "It's just wear and tear." "Maybe you're working too hard." "That time of the month?" "I don't know how to help you." Just a few phrases women regularly hear when seeking help and support for dealing with pain. No wonder 49% of women feel their experience is ignored or dismissed, compared with 38% of men. 

Last year, Nurofen published its first Gender Pain Gap Index Report. The pain-relief brand has now released a follow-up, which found "less than half of women surveyed receive a diagnosis for their pain within 11 months, compared with two-thirds of men." Aiming to help women get diagnosed and treated sooner, Nurofen has introduced the Pain Pass, an easy-to-use tool that empowers people to have more effective conversations with their healthcare providers.

The Pain Pass features a calendar for tracking pain, a burning-gnawing-throbbing vocabulary to articulate what they feel, and a scale for indicating how pain disrupts their life. It also outlines a strategy to use when facing gender bias, aided by the acronym PASS: Pause the conversation, Ask for clarity, Speak Up, Seek another opinion.

Nurofen is distributing printed copies of its Pain Pass folded down to credit card size as well as a downloadable PDF.