CRAMPED

Kate is back from surgery! In Part 1 of a 2 part series, she goes step by step through the imaging result that gave her the information that lead her to commit to surgery, and the physical, administrative, and financial preparations for her surgery. Get ready to hear real numbers and honesty about the factors contributing to the decision. Hopefully this episode is helpful to anyone on the fence about the decision or trying...

In this Case Study episode, Kate brings on Deanna Hart-Nokes, who just went off hormonal birth control for the second time in 20 years, and has been experiencing some mysterious symptoms. Kate deep-dives into the clinical research to understand how hormonal birth control works, and what might be causing Deanna's increased period pain, soreness, and increased sensation.

CRAMPED episodes are intended for informational and en...

Fibroids are a super common cause of severe period pain - up to 80% of people with a uterus will get fibroids at some point! So...why don't we know why they grow? Why don't they get caught and treated sooner? Kate talks with Jonelle Henry from The White Dress Project, an organization that spreads awareness, education, and resources about fibroids. Jonelle tells her own story of how fibroids impacted her life as a high-powe...

Kate talks to her friend Taylor Hallam, who has struggled with ovulation pain and ovarian cyst ruptures since getting off 19 straight years of hormonal birth control. Taylor has questions, and Kate dives into the research to find answers. What causes ovarian cysts? What are they filled with? Why do doctors often say they're "normal" and offer no options other than birth control? Are there other ways to treat ovarian cysts?...

Kate answers some questions that listeners asked her to research for them, including:

What do I do when my doctor says my lab results are "normal"?

Does the MTHFR gene mutation affect periods?

Why are my cramps excruciating one month and fine the next month?

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While we're on a break from releasing new CRAMPED episodes, we're recommending some other fantastic podcasts to check out. Today we're featuring an episode of Sex Ed with DB, a feminist podcast all the sex ed you never got, centering LGBTQ+ and BIOPOC experts, hosted by Danielle Bezalel (aka “DB”), MPH.

This episode, "The Ultimate Period Episode with Dr. Jen Gunter" fulfills a sneaky goal of Kate's, which is to get Dr....

While we're on a break from releasing new CRAMPED episodes, we're recommending some other fantastic podcasts to check out. Today we're featuring an episode of The Hidden Economics of Remarkable Women, from Foreign Policy and Good Trouble Productions.

According to the World Bank, as many as 500 million people every month lack access to menstrual products or facilities. This cuts across all countries, including big pocke...

If 51% of the population has a uterus, and 91% of menstruating people experience period pain, why do we literally never hear about it in the media we consume?? Whether its TV, film, podcasts (aside from this one), or social media, it's practically impossible to find stories of periods and period pain. Why?? And how does this lack of visibility affect all of us?

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and Califo...

Kate talks to her mom about joining the Boston Women's Health Movement in the 1970s. Why was body literacy such a big part of feminism in the 70s, but when Kate became an active feminist in Boston in the 2000s, she didn't get information about body literacy? To learn more, Kate talks to Laura Prieto, program director of Our Bodies, Ourselves.

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Kate gets sucked down a rabbit hole of "hormone balancing" content on TikTok, and wonders...this whole time, have her cramps just been due to a hormone imbalance? She talks with Alex Sujong Laughlin (Normal Gossip, Defector) about her experience trying to balance her hormones with info from TikTok, and then gets real answers from Dr. Thara Vayali on hormone function, cortisol, and how our hormones ACTUALLY work.

Transc...

Kate takes a field trip to Evanston, Illinois to visit the Gynecology Research Laboratory, where a team of doctors and researchers are doing groundbreaking studies to understand period pain and find new treatments. What can they tell us about what causes severe dysmenorrhea, and is there hope for relief?

Episode transcript and citations: https://www.katehelendowney.com/episode-4-transcript

Editorial Producer: Kelsey DiL...

It seems like a simple question, right? How many other people out there are experiencing "death cramps"? It turns out...not so much.

Kate brings on her sister Maeve, who also gets death cramps, to figure out why they never talked about the horrible pain they were both in. They look at a meta-study of the prevalence of severe period pain, and bring in data scientist Andrea Jones-Rooy to explain why the data on this is so ba...

When you're in severe pain and can't figure out how to make it go away, you might seek help at an ER or Urgent Care. But if you're experiencing severe PERIOD pain, you may not get what you need.

Kate and guest Sydney Battle trade stories of ER visits gone wrong, then Kate brings their questions to ER doctor and Good Morning America medical correspondent Dr. Darien Sutton for some answers and advice.

Episode 2 Transcript ...