Bioelectronic medicine: “We are entering a new era of gender-aware healthcare”

Did you know that women are significantly more likely than men to suffer from a chronic pain condition during their lifetime and that around 70 per cent of all pain patients identify as female?

Owing to gender biases in global medical research and development, women suffering from chronic pain conditions have been systematically underserved throughout history.

Even when the unique complexities of female physiology are factored into medical research, subjects tend to be analysed in the early follicular phase of their menstrual cycle when their hormone levels are the lowest –  i.e. when their physiology is most superficially like men.

This amounts to discrimination against women, and means that women fare poorly when compared to men with regard to disease management, access to treatment and communication with their healthcare providers.

From my years of research and clinical experience in pain and wound management, I know that women suffering from chronic pain often have their symptoms dismissed. When they are heard, they are too often prescribed pain medication and rarely offered viable alternatives.

However, as women increasingly refuse to accept marginalisation by their healthcare providers, and more focus and funding are injected into femtech, we are entering a new era of gender-aware healthcare.

The gender pain gap: tackling a growing issue

Pain conditions predominantly affecting females, such as fibromyalgia, endometriosis and dysmenorrhea – severe period pain, top the list of common but poorly understood diseases.

A recent study revealed that 176 million women worldwide have endometriosis – a gynaecological disorder that causes debilitating cramping and can have serious fertility implications.

The pandemic has exacerbated the disparity between the treatment of chronic pain between the genders.

In fact, 58 per cent of women in the UK had to visit the doctor more than ten times before being diagnosed with endometriosis. Even once a diagnosis has been secured, the primary method of pain management is painkillers designed for short-term relief.

Any woman that has experienced chronic pain will know that the consequences reach far beyond that of pain alone.

Period pain, for example, affects more than 80 per cent of menstruating women globally and is the primary cause of absenteeism from work and school.

What’s more, researchers from Harvard have revealed that pain circuits are more amplified in women due to the complexities of female hormones.

But when you consider that more than 80 percent of pain studies are conducted on male mice or human men, it is hardly surprising that few effective pain treatments for women have been developed. However, exciting innovations in the medical device sector now mean that the status quo is slowly changing.

New frontiers in pain management: bioelectronic therapy

One of the exciting new areas of medical technology that I work in is bioelectronic therapy, emerging as an alternative or complementary treatment for chronic pain and wound healing.

To understand how bioelectronic tech can help reduce chronic pain, it is helpful to think about how pain signals interact with our brains.

These electrical signals travel from our nerves to our brains, where they are interpreted as the sensation of ‘pain’. If we apply a microcurrent to the body that mimics these electrical currents, then pain impulses can be influenced.

In short, bioelectronic therapy helps relieve pain by interfering with the electrical impulses that cause the pain, right at the source.

What I find fascinating about bioelectronic technology is that it has the potential to treat a wide range of conditions. The most common ones are pain and inflammation – two of the most common symptoms of female chronic pain disorders.

How can bioelectronic devices be used by women to treat chronic pain?

There are many different ways that bioelectronic therapy can be delivered.

For some people that require more permanent pain relief, bioelectronic devices can be implanted and activated at certain times.

However, typically small handheld and wearable devices that are attached to electrode pads are used to carry the gentle electric currents to precise locations via the skin.

For women suffering from chronic pain, having something portable and discrete is really important to provide fast and convenient relief when and where it’s needed.

At NuroKor, my team has recently developed a wearable bioelectronic device for women that combines the most effective technologies.

It uses peripheral nerve stimulation to counteract the painful effects of prostaglandin production – a biological compound that stimulates inflammation and blood flow – coupled with microcurrent technology to facilitate healing and support tissue function.

The future of bioelectronic technologies – a promising future for women’s health?

Whilst bioelectronic therapy isn’t currently mainstream, it is well on track to be.

As research into the technology and into the mechanisms of female pain are advanced, the application of bioelectronics for women, and throughout healthcare, will become more widespread.

Coupled with further progress in artificial intelligence and data insights, bioelectronic technologies will also become more personalised. This is important because every individual experiences chronic pain in a different way.

Developers and researchers, including those in the NuroKor team, are working to build more advanced and more sophisticated bioelectronic technology specifically for women within the next ten years.

It’s my hope this next generation of bioelectronic treatment will finally empower women to take control of chronic pain, free from side effects, and free to live their lives without compromise.

Dr Irem Tezer Ates is the Medical Science Director at NuroKor Bioelectronics. She has over 15 years of experience in research and clinical treatments, and specialises in the development of bioelectronic technology for pain management and wound healing.