23 September 2025
Welcome to the first in our new series, Webinar Wrap-Ups, where we attend sector webinars and distil the most relevant insights for those working to improve the health of people who use drugs. In this edition, we explore women’s experiences of treatment for opioid use disorder — a topic that reveals how gendered expectations and systemic barriers shape care in profound ways.
On 18 September, NDARC (National Drug & Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW Sydney) hosted a webinar exploring women’s experiences of treatment for opioid use disorder. The session was presented by Chloe Haynes, Associate Research Fellow with the NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence on Meaningful Outcomes in Substance Use Treatment.
Fabiana Porto, Project Officer at INHSU attended. This is what she learned:
What was the core theme of the webinar?
The central message was how deeply gendered expectations shape women’s treatment experiences. Women who use drugs face pressures that men often don’t — particularly around motherhood, stigma, and entrenched patriarchal views of substance use.
These pressures mean women frequently carry guilt, shame, and fear into treatment, making it vital that care is both person-centred and gender responsive.
What gap, risk, or issue was highlighted that is often overlooked?
Gender-specific risks aren’t consistently captured in routine data. Factors like domestic violence, trauma, and suicidality aren’t always included, which means services risk missing the realities shaping women’s experiences of opioid use and treatment. If these aren’t acknowledged, engagement will always be harder.
Another statistic that stood out was the prevalence of polysubstance for women – it is the norm, not the exception. Chloe spoke about research with NADABase, covering nearly 3,000 participants, which really underlined this.
What idea or innovation stood out that could change practice or thinking?
Chloe spoke about patient-reported experience measures (PREMs) as an avenue to capture women’s complex, gendered experiences of treatment which could be a useful approach for services. PREMs can help move beyond single “satisfaction” scores to capture the complexity of women’s lives.
What does this mean in practice for people working in the field?
It means taking a more individualised approach to risk assessment — identifying issues early and tailoring strategies and supports to each woman’s circumstances. The webinar highlighted a wide range of challenges that can affect engagement, including domestic violence, coercive control, isolation, stigma, misogyny, safety concerns, childcare responsibilities, and treatment preferences. These factors all need to be recognised and built into care.
Women’s treatment experiences also have to be understood in a broader context, where cost, location, access to female-specific services, and the availability of residential options can determine whether treatment is possible at all.
If there’s one thing to take forward from this webinar, what should it be?
The key message for me was that improving women’s experiences of treatment requires coordinated action at every level — service, sector, and policy.
- At the service level: more trauma-informed, gender-responsive care; peer-support roles; child-inclusive options.
- At the sector level: improved gender-based data collection; integrated supports; stronger rural and regional coverage.
- At the policy level: investment in gender-specific models; de-stigmatising motherhood and substance use; integrating AOD, housing, parenting, and mental health reforms.
Fabi’s closing thought
Improving women’s experiences of treatment means looking beyond the clinic and addressing the broader social and structural conditions that shape their lives.
