Why is so little known about women’s bodies?

Gabrielle Jackson was diagnosed in 2001 with endometriosis, a disease that affects one in 10 Australian women. She didn’t really understand the illness. She lived with overwhelming pain and nausea, suffering leg, back, period and hip pain, bloating, diarrhoea, dizziness and debilitating fatigue.  For years she ascribed the pain to other things, thinking she was weak and calling herself a hypochondriac before anyone else could. Then in 2015 she attended a conference on endometriosis, and it left her in tears. She realised along with endo, she had adenomyosis and very little understanding of what was happening inside her body.  A lengthy period of research followed - and the discovery that the broader problem with women's health was worse than she imagined. Women wait longer than men for pain medication. They are also more likely to have physical symptoms attributed to mental health issues, their heart disease misdiagnosed, and to suffer illnesses ignored or denied by the medical profession.  Further information Pain and Prejudice is published by Allen & Unwin Gabrielle is an associate news editor for Guardian Australia