{"id":1481,"date":"2026-07-31T07:32:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T07:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mylurah.com\/resources\/?p=1481"},"modified":"2026-07-31T07:32:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T07:32:08","slug":"why-womens-pain-is-often-dismissed-in-african-communities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mylurah.com\/resources\/why-womens-pain-is-often-dismissed-in-african-communities\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Women\u2019s Pain Is Often Dismissed in African Communities"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Is How God Made Women?”<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adora was seventeen the day the cramps first doubled her over in the school hallway. She fainted before the teacher even reached her. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At home that evening, her mother rubbed her back gently and said the words Adora would hear for the next fifteen years: “It’s normal, my dear. Every woman goes through this.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So she believed it. She missed classes some months. She missed work meetings later in life. She smiled through the pain at weddings and burials because that’s what strong women did. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wasn’t until she collapsed at her desk at 32 that a doctor finally said the word out loud: endometriosis<\/strong>. By then, the damage had quietly been building for over a decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nobody in Afora’s life was cruel to her. They simply repeated what they’d always been told that a woman’s pain is something to survive, not something to question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why We Wave It Away<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There’s a reason stories like Adora’s are so common, and it isn’t just culture, it’s how medicine itself has treated women for generations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Women are more likely than men to have their pain dismissed, their symptoms misread, and their conditions diagnosed too late, largely because medical systems were historically built without women’s bodies in mind [1].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In many Nigerian homes, this bias meets an even older belief. Girls grow up hearing that severe period pain is simply <\/strong>“part of being a woman”. In some communities, girls may hear phrases such as “this is just part of being a woman” or “this is how women are made”, which can unintentionally discourage them from seeking care<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of answers, women are often told to take paracetamol or that having a baby will “fix” the problem [2].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it doesn’t stop at menstruation. Across many conditions, doctors have been shown to under-treat women’s pain, sometimes assuming they’re exaggerating what they feel [3].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Silence Costs Us<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Here’s the hard truth: staying quiet doesn’t make the pain disappear,  it just gives it time to grow.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than half of women in a recent global review said their pain had been dismissed by a healthcare provider, and many avoided going back for care altogether, afraid they simply wouldn’t be believed [4]. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That avoidance is exactly what allows conditions like endometriosis<\/strong> to progress silently, with scar tissue building, organs fusing, fertility quietly slipping away, one dismissed appointment at a time [5].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This isn’t a small, rare story. It’s happening in homes, schools, and clinics all over the country right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

At MyLurah, we believe every woman deserves to feel informed, supported, and understood throughout every stage of her reproductive journey. From navigating periods and understanding her body to preparing for pregnancy and adjusting to life after birth, we create a safe space for culturally informed education, meaningful conversations, and community support.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Changing the Story<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The good news? This can change, and it starts with small, human choices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stop telling girls that agony is normal. <\/em><\/strong>Painful periods that disrupt school, work, or daily life are not just “part of being a woman”; they can be a sign of something treatable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speak up, even when it feels awkward. Advocates working with women across Africa say breaking this silence starts with simply feeling safe enough to say, “This pain isn’t normal” [6].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Push for real answers, not just painkillers. Specialists have found that cultural attitudes, not just limited hospitals, are a major reason women wait years for a proper diagnosis [7].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And if you’re the mother, sister, or friend hearing about someone’s pain, believe her first. Ask questions later.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

She Deserves to Be Believed<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Adora’s story didn’t have to take fifteen years. Somewhere between “it’s normal” and a real diagnosis, there was room for someone to simply ask, “Are you sure?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Women’s pain isn’t drama. It isn’t a weakness. It’s information, and it deserves to be heard the first time, not the tenth.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

References<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  1. UN News. (2026). From misdiagnosis to medical bias: Why women are living longer but not better<\/em>. https:\/\/news.un.org\/en\/story\/2026\/04\/1167259<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Champion Newspapers. (2026). Millions of Nigerian women are told their pain is normal, but it’s not<\/em>. https:\/\/championnews.com.ng\/2026\/06\/21\/millions-of-nigerian-women-are-told-their-pain-is-normal-but-its-not\/<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Wilson, K. (2022). Women’s pain often is dismissed by doctors<\/em>. The Washington Post. https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wellness\/interactive\/2022\/women-pain-gender-bias-doctors\/<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Author et al. (2025). A Literature Review on Pain Management in Women During Medical Procedures: Gaps, Challenges, and Recommendations<\/em>. PMC. https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC12388214\/<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Champion Newspapers. (2026). Millions of Nigerian women are told their pain is normal, but it’s not<\/em>. https:\/\/championnews.com.ng\/2026\/06\/21\/millions-of-nigerian-women-are-told-their-pain-is-normal-but-its-not\/<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. Endometriosis Foundation of America. (2022). Endometriosis in African Women: The Reasons Behind Unreported Cases & Lack of Access to Care<\/em>. https:\/\/www.endofound.org\/endometriosis-in-african-women-the-reasons-behind-unreported-cases-lack-of-access-to-care<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  7. Adeyemi, A., et al. (2025). Factors contributing to the delayed diagnosis of endometriosis<\/em>. PMC. https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC12321876\/<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    “Is How God Made Women?” Adora was seventeen the day the cramps first doubled her over in the school hallway.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1482,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[74,73],"class_list":["post-1481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture-and-experience","tag-culture-and-experience","tag-mylurah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mylurah.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mylurah.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mylurah.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mylurah.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mylurah.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1481"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mylurah.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1483,"href":"https:\/\/mylurah.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1481\/revisions\/1483"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mylurah.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mylurah.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mylurah.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mylurah.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}