Honor, 25, is one of these millions of women living in chronic pain in the UK after an accident on holiday three years ago. She says, "I think that sometimes the most debilitating thing about pain and especially chronic pain is its invisibility. It grinds you down and makes you question who you are as a person." She adds that "it’s really hard being told by a doctor that there is nothing medically wrong when you know and feel otherwise. It leaves you wondering if it is in your head." 2014 survey of 2,000 women carried out by the National Pain Report also revealed the problem with chronic pain is "invisibility". Around 75% of those surveyed were told at least once by a doctor that "nothing could be done for them and that they would just have to live with chronic pain," while 65% said that they felt doctors took their pain less seriously because they were a woman. 51% reported being told that "you look good, so you must be feeling better" and 45% that "the pain is all in your head."Sonya Chowdhury, CEO of Action For M.E., a charity which raises awareness and funds for the illness emphasises the condition’s impact on women. She says, "Four times more women than men live with the complex and disabling symptoms of M.E.; we know that a considerable majority of individuals with M.E. are forced to stop or reduce paid work… and one in five told us that it has affected their decision to have children."In 2005, my mother and my younger brother fell ill with M.E.. I watched them struggle to have their condition recognised. My mother one day managed to get out of bed to attend a meeting for a disabled parking permit only to be told that if she was well enough to turn up unaided she didn’t need it; but she spent the next month in bed because of the effort it had taken her to attend.It gave me a small insight into the plight of those living with chronic pain conditions such as M.E., which often permit the sufferer enough ‘good days’ for society to believe that they have recovered or were never ill in the first place. Such attitudes perpetuate the suffering of millions, and particularly millions of women worldwide.Women suffering with chronic pain endure the stigma attached to all hidden illnesses, which is that it’s "in their heads" and "not real"; and yet it affects very real decisions such as whether to start a family or not. Myths surrounding women’s experience of pain persists from ideas that women exaggerate or make up pain, to notions that they have a higher pain threshold than men ( they don’t ).Dr. Fayaz says, "I hope our research gives a voice to people – especially to women who appear to be disproportionally affected." Indeed, this study not only platforms the voiceless but also illuminates the scale of the problem in the UK alone; and shows just how much ground there is still to be covered, particularly when it comes to treating women in chronic pain in this country.