This episode is a big one—we have our first-ever guest! Jen’s sister, Tori, joins the pod to share her experience living with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a hormonal condition that affects 1 in 10 women worldwide. She talks about her journey from a delayed diagnosis at 16 to navigating fertility, lifestyle changes, and the often frustrating lack of medical support. The conversation also takes some hilarious detours into awkward sex ed memories, birth control, and the surprising history of contraception (hint: it involves camels).

Topics Covered:

• What PCOS actually is and why it’s so hard to diagnose.
• The impact of insulin resistance on hormones, weight, and energy levels.
• How PCOS affects periods (or in Tori’s case, how it meant never having them).
• The struggle of getting doctors to take women’s hormone health seriously.
• Being told to “just lose weight” as a cure-all (we all relate 🙄).
• The emotional and medical challenges of trying to conceive with PCOS.
• How pregnancy acted as a hormonal reset for Tori (and why it’s not a cure).
• Sex ed horror stories—cartoon anatomy, banana condoms, and school assemblies of doom.
• Why birth control research for men never took off (spoiler: they didn’t like the side effects).

Notable Moments:

💬 "You have a pearl bracelet around your ovaries." – The bizarre way doctors described Tori’s PCOS diagnosis.

💬 "I was told to lose weight at 16… when I was already super active and healthy." – The start of a lifelong battle with diet culture.

💬 "I’ve had four periods before the age of 30… and one of them got me pregnant." – The wild unpredictability of PCOS.

💬 "Wait… people used to put STONES in camels to stop them getting pregnant?!" – Maeghan, fully horrified.

Takeaways:

🔹 PCOS is way more common than people think, but it’s still widely misunderstood.

🔹 Weight stigma in medicine is real, and being told to “just lose weight” is not a treatment plan.

🔹 Hormonal health impacts so much more than fertility—it affects energy, mood, skin, and long-term health risks.

🔹 Women’s health issues are often dismissed, but advocating for yourself is key.

🔹 There is a huge community of people living with PCOS—support and resources are out there!

Get in Touch:

We’d love to hear from you! If this episode resonated with you, email us at [email protected].

Coming up next: More deep dives into hormone health, plus another guest in the works! Stay tuned!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.