Women don't have to resign themselves to suffering
On International Women's Health Action Day, medical specialists are confronting a paradox centuries in the making: the suffering most familiar to women is precisely the suffering least likely to be treated. From menstrual pain to menopause to urinary incontinence, symptoms that affect millions have been absorbed into the background noise of female life, mistaken for nature when they are, in many cases, medicine's unfinished business. Gynecologists like Dr. Victoria Valdés warn that this normalization is not a neutral cultural habit but an active harm — one that delays diagnoses, forecloses treatment, and quietly diminishes the quality of countless lives.
- Millions of women carry diagnoses they've never received, because they were taught that pain, leakage, and disrupted sleep are simply the cost of being female.
- Conditions like endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome hide in plain sight, mistaken for ordinary discomfort while they quietly advance without treatment.
- Menopause is far more than the end of fertility — estrogen's withdrawal reshapes the brain, joints, and heart, yet the medical and cultural response remains woefully inadequate.
- Shame keeps women from reporting urinary incontinence, even as effective treatments — both medical and surgical — sit unused and unknown.
- A slow shift is underway: more women are consulting specialists about painful or irregular periods, and diagnosis rates are beginning to improve as a result.
- Specialists argue that closing this gap demands three things working in concert: deeper physician training, broader public awareness, and a culture that stops treating female suffering as inevitable.
This week, on International Women's Health Action Day, gynecologists are raising an alarm about a problem so normalized it has become nearly invisible: the widespread acceptance of female symptoms that are, in fact, treatable medical conditions. Intense menstrual cramps, urinary leakage, irregular cycles, hot flashes, shattered sleep — women have learned to absorb these as the ordinary price of their biology. Doctors say this resignation is itself a form of harm.
Dr. Victoria Valdés, a menopause specialist at Olympia Quirónsalud and member of the Spanish Association for the Study of Menopause, traces the problem to history. Women's health has been systematically undervalued for generations, she explains, and many women have internalized the message that their suffering is normal. Behind these familiar complaints often lie real pathologies — endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome, hormonal imbalances — that require evaluation and care. Because symptoms go unreported, diagnosis arrives late, if at all. Endometriosis in particular continues to be dismissed as just bad cramps, even as it quietly damages lives.
Menopause stands as perhaps the clearest example of this neglect. Estrogen doesn't only govern reproduction — it acts on the brain, the joints, the cardiovascular system. When levels fall, the consequences cascade: hot flashes disrupt sleep, disrupted sleep breeds anxiety, anxiety erodes both physical and emotional health. Yet menopause remains poorly addressed by medicine and shrouded in cultural silence, with physicians undertrained and women expected simply to endure.
Urinary incontinence follows the same pattern. Women delay seeking help out of shame, or because they've accepted leakage as an unavoidable consequence of aging or childbirth. Valdés is direct: this is false. Effective treatments exist. The fact that so many women don't know this — and live with a manageable condition in silence — reveals how completely these symptoms have been absorbed into the background of female life.
The path forward, Valdés argues, requires medical education, public awareness, and a cultural shift that stops treating female suffering as inevitable. Prevention — through exercise, nutrition, and sleep — is equally essential, but only works when women are informed enough to pursue it and supported enough to believe it matters.
This week marks International Women's Health Action Day, and medical specialists are sounding an alarm about a problem so deeply embedded in everyday life that most women don't even recognize it as a problem: the normalization of symptoms that should be treated.
Intense menstrual cramps. Urinary leakage. Irregular periods that disrupt entire months. Hot flashes that arrive without warning. Sleep that fragments into useless pieces. These are the complaints that millions of women have learned to accept as the price of being female—inevitable, unchangeable, simply part of the deal. But doctors say this resignation is itself a kind of illness, one that keeps women from seeking care they desperately need.
Dr. Victoria Valdés, a gynecologist specializing in menopause at Olympia Quirónsalud and member of the Spanish Association for the Study of Menopause, traces the problem to history. Women's health has been systematically undervalued for generations, she explains, which means many women have internalized the message that their suffering is normal, even when it could be treated. Behind many of these symptoms lie real pathologies—endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome, hormonal imbalances—that require medical evaluation and intervention. Yet because the symptoms have been normalized, diagnosis often comes late, if at all.
Conditions like endometriosis and PCOS remain dramatically underdiagnosed, Valdés notes, partly because medicine has historically paid little attention to certain women's health problems and partly because some diagnoses are genuinely complex to make. The good news is that more women are now consulting doctors about painful or irregular periods, which is allowing specialists to identify and treat these conditions more effectively. But the gap remains enormous. Endometriosis in particular continues to hide in plain sight, dismissed as just bad cramps.
Menopause represents perhaps the starkest example of this neglect. Most people think of it simply as the end of reproductive years, but Valdés emphasizes that the hormonal shifts involved ripple through the entire body. Estrogen doesn't just regulate menstruation—it acts on the brain, the joints, the cardiovascular system. When estrogen levels drop, the consequences extend far beyond hot flashes. The flashes themselves can be severe, especially during warm months, but they trigger a cascade: disrupted sleep leads to anxiety and difficulty concentrating, which erodes physical and emotional wellbeing. Yet menopause remains inadequately addressed both medically and socially, hampered by insufficient physician training, deep stigma, and a cultural silence that tells women to simply endure.
Another realm where women suffer in isolation is pelvic floor dysfunction and urinary incontinence. Many delay seeking help out of shame or because they've accepted leakage as inevitable—an unavoidable consequence of aging or childbirth. Valdés wants women to know this is false. Multiple therapeutic options exist, both medical and surgical, that can substantially improve quality of life. The fact that women don't know this, that they live with a treatable condition in silence, speaks to how thoroughly these symptoms have been normalized.
The path forward, Valdés argues, requires three things: better medical education so doctors understand women's health more thoroughly, broader public awareness so women know they don't have to accept these symptoms, and a cultural shift that stops treating female suffering as inevitable. She also emphasizes prevention: regular exercise, healthy eating, and adequate sleep are the foundational tools for protecting women's health over decades, reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, and loss of independence as they age. But prevention only works if women are informed enough to pursue it, and supported enough to believe it matters.
Citas Notables
Women's health has been traditionally undervalued, leading many to accept as normal symptoms that can and should be treated— Dr. Victoria Valdés, gynecologist specializing in menopause
We need more medical education, more awareness, and women need to know they don't have to live with symptoms that damage their quality of life— Dr. Victoria Valdés
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
Why do you think women have accepted these symptoms as normal for so long?
Because medicine told them to, in a way. When doctors don't take your pain seriously, when there's no diagnosis, no treatment offered, you start to believe it's just how your body works. It becomes invisible.
But doctors are trained to help people. Why would they dismiss menstrual pain or hot flashes?
It's not always deliberate dismissal. It's historical neglect that became institutional. Women's health wasn't prioritized in research or training. So doctors inherited a gap in knowledge, and women inherited the consequences.
What changes when a woman finally gets diagnosed with something like endometriosis?
Everything. Suddenly the pain has a name. It's not weakness or exaggeration. There are treatments. But the tragedy is how long many women wait—sometimes decades—before anyone takes them seriously enough to look.
Is menopause really as serious as the doctor makes it sound?
It's not a disease, but it's not trivial either. Hormones affect your brain, your heart, your bones. When they shift dramatically, your whole system responds. The problem is we've treated it like a cosmetic issue instead of a medical one.
So what does a woman do if she's experiencing these symptoms right now?
See a doctor. Don't accept "that's just how it is." Push back if you're dismissed. Your symptoms are real, and they deserve evaluation. That's the message specialists are trying to get out.