Samantha Bee's Hilarious Take on Women's Pain Will Have You Laughing Through Your Cramps

For Women’s History Month, comedian Samantha Bee spilled the tea on the treatment of women’s pain throughout history on her show “Full Frontal With Samantha Bee” Wednesday on TBS.

The hilarious but all too relatable segment included guest star, Laurie Metcalf, an actress known for her roles on “Roseanne” and more recently “Lady Bird.” In the skit, Metcalf plays a woman seeking treatment for pain in her “lady parts” throughout history, from ancient Greece to the Victorian Era and present day.

In each scene, Metcalf is met with condescension and ignorance, even in today’s medically-educated world.

“This stuff is not that far in the past,” Bee said. “The medical communities indifference to women’s bodies and opinions still affect all kinds of care.”

Bee then reminds the audience that, up until 2010, medical students in Canada were performing pelvic exams on unconscious women who had come in for gynecological surgery without consent.

In the present day scene, Metcalf is frustrated at her doctor’s lack of help and competence with her pain related to endometriosis. She recounts judgments and recommendations — lose weight, you’re faking it, advil and therapy. While the clip is comedic, these situations are not uncommon. Women are more likely to be prescribed sedatives for pain instead of pain medications. And women with chronic pain conditions are more likely to be diagnosed with a mental illness and have their symptoms dismissed as being psychological.

“Women’s pain still isn’t taken as seriously as it should be,” Bee said. “It takes six to eight years on average to finally get diagnosed with endometriosis.”

Bee also highlighted the use of birth control being pushed as a treatment for many female reproductive health conditions, which Metcalf summed up in her present-day scene.

“You guys have developed like 45 different pills for boners, and all you can offer me is the same old fucking birth control pill.”

Bee isn’t hating on the pill, rather she is drawing attention to the lack of treatment options for women in pain. The pill is used for a wide range of conditions, from polycystic ovary syndrome and endometriosis to cramps and acne. For endometriosis, the pill just alleviates symptoms and doesn’t treat the condition.

“So ladies, the next time you feel like the weight of the world is bearing down on your uterus, it is,” Bee said.