America's health care system is inherently sexist, especially when it comes to pain. Research has shown that female patients are consistently prescribed less pain-relieving medication than male patients. Female patients who have chronic pain conditions are also more likely to be misdiagnosed with mental health conditions.

When women started to speak out on TikTok, documenting their real-life experiences of getting an intrauterine device (IUD) inserted, so many felt it validated their pain. In some of the videos posted on TikTok, women describe the pain as “horrible” and “awful.” Another said she was told she’d feel a “pinch,” a common description of the process, but instead what she received was “trauma,” as she was crying during the insertion.

Researchers at Duke University analyzed the top 100 TikTok videos with the hashtag #IUD and found that when users shared details of their experiences, most of them focused on the pain. The pain has been validated is some scientific research, too. A 2014 study of 109 IUD recipients found that 78 percent of the study’s participants reported pain ranging from moderate to severe upon insertion. The following year, a study found that doctors tend to underestimate the pain patients experience during the procedure.

Related

Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued recommendations for clinicians on how to help manage the pain that women might experience. According to the guidelines, the topical anesthetic lidocaine “might be useful for reducing patient pain” when injected........

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