The Pain Gap

Anushay Hossain

Join Anushay Hossain, feminist author, podcast host, and powerful women’s health advocate as she interviews doctors, advocates and medical experts about the most urgent issues in women's health. Based on her Audible bestselling book, “The Pain Gap: How Sexism and Racism in Healthcare Kill Women," The Pain Gap podcast provides a vital platform for critical conversations about medical gaslighting and misogyny. Anushay's point is clear: center women's stories and empower listeners to advocate for their health. She also invites male listeners to stand as allies in women's healthcare. Afterall, women's rights is a human rights issue. Through candid discussions, The Pain Gap podcast provides a much needed examination of the women’s health crisis in America. By fostering dialogue, Anushay aims to drive positive change and close #ThePainGap in women's health.

  1. 1D AGO

    68. What We Get Wrong About ADHD and Why Women Pay the Price with Reed Beeley

    Reed Beeley is a clinician working at the intersection of mental health, addiction, and ADHD, and what he's seeing points to something much bigger than individual diagnosis. It's a systemic gap in how ADHD is understood, identified, and treated in women. In this conversation, we unpack why ADHD is so often missed, starting with diagnostic criteria built around how symptoms present in boys, not girls. Reed explains how cultural expectations and gender stereotypes delay diagnosis or prevent it altogether, leaving many women mislabeled as anxious, emotional, or burned out. We also get into how ADHD is frequently misdiagnosed as bipolar disorder or borderline personality disorder, and why those misdiagnoses don't just miss the mark; they can lead to the wrong treatments and deeper cycles of shame. At its core, ADHD isn't just about focus; it's about dopamine regulation, emotional processing, and how the brain responds to reward and stress. We explore the connection between ADHD, addiction, trauma, and hormones, including how estrogen fluctuations can directly impact symptoms and cravings. And at the center of it all is disempowerment: women being taught to question themselves, minimize their symptoms, or push through. As Reed makes clear, that disconnect isn't just emotional; it can become a real barrier to getting the care that could actually change everything. Episode Resources: Connect with Reed on Instagram or email him at rbeeley@gmail.com The Pain Gap Follow Anushay on Instagram Little Saints To learn more about Anushay Hossain's work, check out Anushay's website or sign up for her Substack, where she writes about women's health, politics, and power. To continue the conversation, feel free to DM @anushayhossain or email me at thepaingap@gmail.com

    47 min

  2. APR 9

    67. The Path of Least Regret: Making Impossible Decisions When Everything Is Uncertain with Parul Somani

    Parul Somani was 31 years old, newly postpartum, and had just brought her baby home from the NICU… when she was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer. What followed wasn't just a fight for her life; it was a complete unraveling of everything she thought she knew about control, success, and certainty. Because like so many women, Parul had done everything "right", the degrees, the career, the plan. And still, her body told a different story. In this conversation, we talk about what happens when the healthcare system dismisses your instincts, why self-advocacy can be the difference between life and death, and how women are conditioned to question themselves, even when something feels deeply wrong. We also explore the emotional toll of a diagnosis, the power of reclaiming agency in moments of uncertainty, and how Parul transformed one of the hardest chapters of her life into a framework for decision-making, resilience, and meaning. Because this isn't just a story about cancer, it's a story about listening to your body and what it costs when no one else does. Episode Resources: parulsomani.com The Path of Least Regret (Forbes Books, March 2026) is available on Amazon and other major booksellers Follow Parul Somani on LinkedIn and Instagram The Pain Gap Follow Anushay on Instagram Little Saints To learn more about Anushay Hossain's work, check out Anushay's website or sign up for her Substack, where she writes about women's health, politics, and power. To continue the conversation, feel free to DM @anushayhossain or email me at thepaingap@gmail.com

    46 min

  3. APR 2

    66. When Hormones Get Labeled as Mental Illness with Mandi Dixon

    For millions of women, what we’ve been told is anxiety, depression, or just “getting older”… is actually something else entirely. Today, we’re talking about menopause, not just as a biological transition, but as a mental health crisis hiding in plain sight. Mandi Dixon is a therapist who began noticing a pattern: women walking into her office saying, “I don’t feel like myself,” after being dismissed by doctors and handed diagnoses that didn’t quite fit. And what she discovered changed everything, not just for her clients, but for herself. In this conversation, we unpack how hormonal changes during perimenopause and menopause impact mood, anxiety, identity, and why so many women are misdiagnosed, dismissed, or left to suffer in silence. We talk about the dangerous gap in medical education, the real mental health consequences of that gap, and what it means to finally feel seen, validated, and understood in your own body. Because this isn’t just about hormones. It’s about the cost of not believing women and what happens when we finally start to listen. Episode Resources: Mandi Dixon's Website Mandi Dixon's Instagram Mandi Dixon's TikTok The Pain Gap Follow Anushay on Instagram Little Saints To learn more about Anushay Hossain's work, check out Anushay's website or sign up for her Substack, where she writes about women's health, politics, and power. To continue the conversation, feel free to DM @anushayhossain or email me at thepaingap@gmail.com

    48 min

  4. MAR 26

    65. What Doctors Aren’t Taught About Consent and Why Dr. Zed Zha Says It Matters

    Dr. Zed Zha is a physician, writer, and author of the forthcoming book Consented: A Doctor’s Call to End Medical Violence and Reclaim Patient Autonomy. In this powerful conversation, Dr. Zha takes us inside the hidden culture of medicine to expose how consent is too often treated as paperwork instead of an ongoing act of trust, transparency, and respect. We talk about what happens when medical training strips providers of their humanity, how women’s pain is routinely minimized in everything from Pap smears to childbirth, and why so many patients still don’t know they have the right to stop a procedure at any time. Dr. Zha shares deeply personal stories from her journey through medicine, reflecting on moments that forced her to confront not just the system’s failures but also her own complicity within it. We also explore the realities of caring for underserved communities, the crisis of maternity care deserts, the power dynamics that shape who gets believed in healthcare, and why patient bodily truth must matter just as much as medical expertise. This is a conversation about misogyny, hierarchy, trauma, and what it would look like to build a more human, ethical, and truly consensual healthcare system. Episode Resources: Preorder Dr. Zha's upcoming book Consented: A Doctor’s Call to End Medical Violence and Reclaim Patient Autonomy. Code: ASKTHEPATIENT Discount: 25% off + free shipping Dr. Zha's Substack newsletter - Ask The Patient The Pain Gap Follow Anushay on Instagram To learn more about Anushay Hossain's work, check out Anushay's website or sign up for her Substack, where she writes about women's health, politics, and power. To continue the conversation, feel free to DM @anushayhossain or email me at thepaingap@gmail.com

    1h 2m

  5. MAR 19

    64. Who Gets Remembered? Dr. Anna Malaika Tubbs on Patriarchy, History, and Women’s Power

    Dr. Anna Malaika Tubbs is a sociologist, 2x NYT bestselling author, and one of the sharpest thinkers we have on erasure, patriarchy, and the stories that shape power. If you've ever felt like women, especially women of color, are living in a version of history edited out of our minds, this conversation will hit home. Anna and I talk about what it means to be erased, not just from textbooks, but from healthcare, policy, culture, and even our understanding of who gets to be fully human in this country. We get into how patriarchy was deliberately built into American systems, why progress can be rolled back so quickly, and what it takes to reclaim the stories, voices, and truths that were pushed aside. We also talk about motherhood, race, power, and why naming what's happening is the first step toward changing it. Episode Resources: Dr. Anna Malaika Tubbs on Instagram The Pain Gap Follow Anushay on Instagram To learn more about Anushay Hossain's work, check out Anushay's website or sign up for her Substack, where she writes about women's health, politics, and power. To continue the conversation, feel free to DM @anushayhossain or email me at thepaingap@gmail.com

    1h 8m

  6. MAR 12

    63. What Menopause Really Feels Like: Darcey Steinke on Pain, Shame, and Liberation

    This week on The Pain Gap, Anushay sits down with acclaimed novelist and memoirist Darcey Steinke, author of Flash Count Diary and the new book This Is the Door: The Body, Pain, and Faith, for a deeply honest conversation about menopause, female pain, sexuality, aging, and what it means to stop performing and start telling the truth, finally. Darcey reflects on what it was like to enter menopause with almost no preparation, why she began documenting every hot flash, and how writing in vivid bodily detail became a way to challenge the ridicule and dismissal women so often face. Together, she and Anushay unpack the cultural shame surrounding menopause, the psychological toll of living in a world that treats women's suffering as normal, and the freedom that can come with aging out of performance, pleasing, and pretending. They also talk about post-reproductive power, killer whales as models of female leadership, the myths we still tell about sex and desirability in midlife, and why menopause is not a disease to be erased, but a profound transition to be understood. It's a conversation about the body, voice, ambition, and how much life can open up when women stop apologizing for who they are becoming. Episode Resources: Flash Count Diary: Menopause and the Vindication of Natural Life This Is the Door: The Body, Pain, and Faith The Pain Gap Follow Anushay on Instagram To learn more about Anushay Hossain's work, check out Anushay's website or sign up for her Substack, where she writes about women's health, politics, and power. To continue the conversation, feel free to DM @anushayhossain or email me at thepaingap@gmail.com

    46 min

  7. MAR 5

    62. Fixing America’s Blind Spots: Midwives, Mental Health, and the Fourth Trimester with Adrianne Nickerson

    Adrianne Nickerson is a healthcare operator and entrepreneur who built Oula after years of working inside major health systems and consulting on healthcare transformation. And if you’ve ever wondered why maternity care feels so outdated, so fragmented, and, too often, so unsafe, Adrianne is one of the clearest voices I’ve heard on what’s broken… and what a better system can actually look like. In this conversation, we talk about what she saw from the inside that convinced her real change couldn’t come from within bureaucracy alone, and why innovation sometimes has to be built outside the system, then pulled back in to scale impact. We get into why this maternal health crisis is solvable, even if it doesn’t always feel that way, and the redesigns we already know work: integrating midwives, building real community support, extending postpartum care beyond a single six-week visit, and treating mental health as essential healthcare, not an afterthought. Adrianne also breaks down why so many women say, “No one ever told me,” and how that disempowerment isn’t just emotional; it can become a clinical risk when women don’t feel safe enough to speak up about what’s happening in their bodies. This episode is about what it would take to rebuild maternity care with women at the center, not as a slogan, but as a measurable, scalable standard of care. Episode Resources: Oula The Pain Gap Follow Anushay on Instagram To learn more about Anushay Hossain's work, check out Anushay's website or sign up for her substack. To continue the conversation, feel free to DM @anushayhossain or email me at thepaingap@gmail.com

    48 min

  8. MAR 2

    61. Special Episode: One on One with Anushay -Why Women Are Opting Out with Soraya Chemaly

    Today’s episode is part of a special one-on-one series featuring some of the most urgent and incisive thinkers of our time. And this conversation is exactly that. I’m joined by writer and feminist theorist Soraya Chemaly to talk about rage, resilience, and what she calls male supremacy, not as a buzzword, but as a belief system that shapes our politics, our culture, and our most intimate relationships. In this episode, we unpack why backlash isn’t a sign of feminist failure, but proof of feminist success. We talk about Gen Z women refusing oppressive structures, why solidarity is being punished in real time, and how everyday acts of refusal, from leaving a marriage to canceling a subscription, are deeply political. This conversation is sharp, honest, and at times uncomfortable. But it’s also clarifying. Because as Soraya reminds us, if everything women have accomplished had happened overnight, we would call it a revolution. Episode Resources: Soraya Chemaly Order All We Want Is Everything Here The Pain Gap Follow Anushay on Instagram To learn more about Anushay Hossain's work, check out Anushay's website or sign up for her substack. To continue the conversation, feel free to DM @anushayhossain or email me at thepaingap@gmail.com

    43 min
See All (69)

5
out of 5
16 Ratings

About

Join Anushay Hossain, feminist author, podcast host, and powerful women’s health advocate as she interviews doctors, advocates and medical experts about the most urgent issues in women's health. Based on her Audible bestselling book, “The Pain Gap: How Sexism and Racism in Healthcare Kill Women," The Pain Gap podcast provides a vital platform for critical conversations about medical gaslighting and misogyny. Anushay's point is clear: center women's stories and empower listeners to advocate for their health. She also invites male listeners to stand as allies in women's healthcare. Afterall, women's rights is a human rights issue. Through candid discussions, The Pain Gap podcast provides a much needed examination of the women’s health crisis in America. By fostering dialogue, Anushay aims to drive positive change and close #ThePainGap in women's health.

Information

  • Creator
    Anushay Hossain
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    69
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 Anushay Hossain
  • Show Website
    The Pain Gap

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