health equity means more than words
Having equitable healthcare means understanding the patient experience.
It's the human connection, validated through listening and with empathy for the pain and trauma a person holds. How does it feel?
CONNECTING SCIENCE TO STORY, AND HEALTH TO HEART
Ouch is dedicated to closing the gender health gap through compelling stories, and crafted work. We don't want a brief, we want a conversation that fizzes and pops with potential. We want to ignite your passion for the idea, for the possibility. What if?
hONOURINg WITH THE EXCEPTIONAL
We have an unwavering dedication to craft and expression because focusing on health and wellness for women, trans and non-binary people means there is no vanilla, sitting on the fence, half baked execution. We honour the stories we tell in an authentic and exceptional way, for the good of every body and every mind.
We live in a world where your gender has a bearing on the kind of healthcare experience received, to the point where lives are put at risk and conditions are left undiagnosed. We're making a pledge to help close the gender health gap and we're calling on our client partners in pharma, health, and wellness to stand with us, to create campaigns with lasting impressions, meaningful impacts and behavioural changes.
Our creative and strategic energies are focused on advertising centric to cis women, non-binary people who were assigned female at birth, trans men and trans women. There’s no more normalising pain. It’s time to make things better.
The department for Health and Social Care launched a call for evidence in March 2021 to inform the first ever government-led Women's Health Strategy for England, which you can find here.
Nearly 100,000 people in England got in touch. These are just some of the accounts:
"I have a chronic pain
condition. The doctor told me pain relief was not for ‘people like me’. When I
asked what he meant, he said that young women do not need pain relief, pain
relief is only for people in ‘proper pain’
"No one would believe me that
I was miscarrying. I was left to bleed through my clothes in A&E for 3
hours without pain relief."
"I have had my endometriosis
overlooked, and just told it was period pain and to deal with it. ‘It’s part of
being a woman.’ Told I have no right to go into A&E because ‘my period is
normal and I am exaggerating my pain, it’s all in my head’.
"I was always given
medication to manage my period pain and no investigations were done. It turns
out I had fibroids, endometriosis and adenomyosis. Had I been investigated
properly earlier, I may have avoided a total hysterectomy."
"Gynaecologist wouldn’t
listen to my wishes. I have chronic bleeding and want my tubes tied or womb removed
completely. I do not want children and know the implications of these surgeries
but was told that I would want to have children when I am older and that I
might change my mind about being in a lesbian relationship."