Free Penthrox for IUD procedures is a small device with a big message: women should not have to suffer in silence to access reproductive healthcare.
A long-overdue acknowledgement
For generations, women have been expected to tolerate pain as if it were part of their biology, their culture, or their duty.
Period pain. Pelvic pain. Pain during sex. Pain after childbirth. Pain during reproductive procedures. Pain that is minimised at home, normalised in society, and too often dismissed in clinics.
So when the Victorian Government announced that the green whistle, also known as Penthrox, will be available free for IUD insertions and removals at Victoria’s Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Hubs, it was more than a health policy update.
It was a long-overdue acknowledgement: women’s pain is real, and women deserve relief.
What is the green whistle?
The green whistle is a small handheld inhaler already familiar to many Australians from ambulances, emergency departments and sporting injuries.
It contains methoxyflurane, a fast-acting pain relief medicine that patients breathe in during short painful procedures. The woman remains awake, conscious and able to communicate, but has access to immediate pain relief when she needs it most.
In practical terms, it gives women something they have too often been denied in reproductive healthcare: control, comfort and dignity.
Where will it be available?
The Victorian rollout means Penthrox will be available free of charge for IUD procedures across the state’s network of Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Hubs.
These hubs provide contraception, IUD insertion and removal, pregnancy options, medical abortion, STI testing and treatment, and other reproductive health support.
They are located across metropolitan and regional Victoria, including areas such as Footscray, Broadmeadows, Dandenong, Frankston, Melton, Bendigo, Ballarat, Shepparton, Wodonga, Mildura, Morwell and Warrnambool.
Why this matters for Indian and South Asian women
For Indian and South Asian women in Victoria, this matters deeply.
Many women in migrant communities carry pain quietly. They may avoid reproductive health conversations because of shame, stigma, family expectations, language barriers or fear of judgement.
Some have been taught that “good women” endure discomfort without complaint. Others are used to putting children, partners, parents and work before their own health.
But when silence meets a health system that already underestimates women’s pain, the result can be devastating.
The gender pain gap is real
Victoria’s landmark Inquiry into Women’s Pain made this painfully clear.
The Bridging the Gender Pain Gap report heard from more than 13,000 women, girls, carers, clinicians, researchers and organisations. It found that women’s pain is too often dismissed, under treated and poorly understood.
Many respondents reported years of pain, delayed diagnosis, inadequate treatment and the emotional toll of not being believed.
The report also identified what many women already knew from lived experience: gender bias in healthcare is real. Women are more likely to have their symptoms minimised. Their pain is more likely to be attributed to anxiety, stress or hormones.
Conditions such as endometriosis, adenomyosis, pelvic pain and menopause-related symptoms have been under researched and under funded for too long.
IUD pain should never have been ignored
For many women, an IUD is an excellent contraceptive option. It can also help manage heavy bleeding and some gynaecological conditions. But insertion or removal can be painful, sometimes severely painful.
Yet women have often been told to expect only “mild cramping” and to take paracetamol beforehand.
For some, that advice was nowhere near enough.
Too often, the procedure was treated as quick and routine, while the woman’s experience was treated as secondary. The pain was temporary, so it was tolerated. The clinic was busy, so women were rushed through.
The system kept moving, even when women were clearly suffering.
Pain relief is not a luxury
That is why this announcement matters.
Free access to Penthrox sends a different message. It says pain relief is not a luxury. It says a woman should not have to argue, plead or pay extra to be comfortable during reproductive healthcare.
It says dignity should be built into the procedure, not offered only to those who know how to demand it.
Access matters
It also matters who gets access.
When pain relief is optional, expensive or dependent on a woman asking the “right” question, the women most likely to miss out are often those with less power in the room.
These include women who speak English as a second language, women who are embarrassed, women who cannot afford private care, women with past trauma, young women, migrant women and women who have already been dismissed by the health system.
For Indian women especially, the silence can come from both sides. A woman may be told by family that pain is “normal”, and then told by a clinician the same thing.
She may delay seeking care because reproductive health is still whispered about rather than discussed openly. She may not know what questions to ask, or she may feel she has no right to ask for more.
The result is delay: delayed pain relief, delayed diagnosis, delayed treatment and delayed dignity.
Why did it take so long?
So why has it taken this long?
The answer is uncomfortable.
Women’s pain has been ignored because it has been normalised. Medicine has historically treated male bodies as the default. Reproductive pain has been seen as inevitable.
Women who express pain are too easily labelled anxious, emotional or difficult. Culturally, women are praised for endurance rather than supported in distress.
We have taught girls to be strong, but too often we have confused strength with silent suffering.
A small step, but a powerful one
The green whistle will not close the gender pain gap by itself.
It will not solve endometriosis delays, menopause neglect, chronic pelvic pain, autoimmune misdiagnosis or the lack of culturally safe care.
It must be part of a much wider reform: better research, better medical training, longer consultations, affordable investigations, interpreters, culturally sensitive communication and a health system that listens the first time a woman says, “I am in pain.”
But this rollout is a practical and symbolic step.
It tells women: your pain does not need to be endured silently.
It tells clinicians: pain relief must be part of care, not an afterthought.
It tells policymakers: women’s health reform is not only about hospitals and budgets; it is also about the everyday procedures where women have been expected to suffer quietly.
Strength is not silent suffering
For families in our community, the message is important too.
We must stop telling girls and women that pain is simply part of life. We must stop admiring women only for how much they can tolerate.
Strength is not silence.
Strength is asking questions, seeking options and expecting to be believed.
The green whistle is small enough to hold in one hand.
But for women who have spent years being dismissed, its message is powerful:
We believe you. Your pain matters. Relief should not have taken this long.
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