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. Jen Gunter to be on CRAMPED even after declining to be interviewed.

DB is joined by the one and only Dr. Jen Gunter—OB-GYN, bestselling author, and certified period mythbuster—for the ultimate period episode. They dive into Dr. Jen’s trilogy of books, including her latest, Blood: The Science, Medicine, and Mythology of Menstruation, to unpack what most people get wrong about periods, where the shame comes from, and why it’s time to push back against medical misogyny once and for all.

Check out Sex Ed with DB anywhere you get your podcasts!

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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 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 pockets of the U.S. and the UK. 

The inability to afford period products is often called “period poverty.” Not only does period poverty make many girls’ lives harder; it also affects their ability to stay in school. Many miss school days during their period and it can contribute to them leaving entirely. In India, for example, around 23 million girls drop out of school every year because they do not have a bathroom at school where they feel comfortable managing their period. 

On this episode from Season 6 of The Hidden Economics of Remarkable Women, hear about the solutions to period poverty and how truly transformational it would be for girls. First, reporter Elna Schutz talks to activists who have successfully advocated for affordable period products in South Africa, including students. Then host Reena Ninan speaks with Sia Towo, director of the nonprofit Femme International, about how to end period poverty. Her organization offers menstrual health education, conducts research, and distributes period products in East Africa.

The Hidden Economics of Remarkable Women is a podcast from Foreign Policy, supported in part by the Gates Foundation. Follow and listen to more episodes: 

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-hidden-economics-of-remarkable-women-hero/id1572532247.

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In season 1's final episode, Kate calls up biological anthropologist Kate Clancy to find out why we're even in this pain to begin with. Then Kate throws a period party, and gives the details on how she's been treating her period pain and endometriosis.

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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?

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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 checks in with comedian and recent hysterectomy patient Max Gross, as well as therapist Suzanne Garrison to figure out - what is medical trauma, and do we have it? How does undiagnosed and untreated pain affect mental health?

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Kate sees a specialist and finally gets a diagnosis for the condition causing her severe period pain. But instead of relief and a clear treatment plan, she just has more questions. She interviews her doctor, Dr. Iris Kerin Orbuch, and influencer Emma Maxwell.

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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.

Transcript at: www.katehelendowney.com/episode-5-transcript

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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 DiLanzo 

Sound Design & Mixing: Kelly Kramarik at Maven Post Media

Associate Producer: Katelyn Sabater 

Theme song: Farideh

Podcast art: Nicholas Scheppard

This podcast is supported by the Simons Foundation’s Science, Society & Culture Initiative

Fiscal partnership is provided by the Arkansas Podcast Collaborative

Published in partnership with Multitude. Contact them for advertising inquiries at https://multitude.productions/ads

This publication is for entertainment and informational purposes only, and does not represent itself as medical advice. 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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 bad.

Episode transcript and citations: https://www.katehelendowney.com/episode-3-transcript

Editorial Producer: Kelsey DiLanzo 

Sound Design & Mixing: Kelly Kramarik at Maven Post Media

Associate Producer: Katelyn Sabater 

Theme song: Farideh

Podcast art: Nicholas Scheppard

This podcast is supported by the Simons Foundation’s Science, Society & Culture

Division

Fiscal partnership is provided by the Arkansas Podcast Collaborative

Published in partnership with Multitude. Contact them for advertising inquiries at https://multitude.productions/ads

This publication is for entertainment and informational purposes only, and does not represent itself as medical advice. 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.