The Little Black Dress of Women's Health

Losing your period isn't a sign you're training hard. It can be a sign your body doesn't have enough fuel.

In this episode, Peta Titter (WHEN Founder and CEO) is joined by sports physiotherapist Chrissy Tadros and sports dietitian Alicia Edge, who has worked at the Australian Institute of Sport and with the Matildas. Together they unpack RED-S (Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport), what happens when the body isn't getting enough energy for everything it's being asked to do.

They explain why RED-S replaced the "female athlete triad", why it affects males as well as females, and why you don't have to be an elite athlete to develop it. They look at how it's picked up, often through a stress fracture or missing periods, and why eating more isn't always the answer if nobody asks why someone is underfuelling in the first place.

Alicia talks about the pressures young people face around food, from schools where eating lunch is frowned upon, to weight comments in sport, to "what I eat in a day" videos that start with a body check.

The episode ends with practical signs for parents and athletes to watch for, why periods should be talked about at the dinner table, and how to find the right support, including self-referring to a dietitian.

Support the show

| www.when.org.au | Copyright Women's Health Education Network |

Need Immediate Help?
If you or someone you know is struggling during the postnatal period, it's crucial to remember that immediate help is available. Here are steps and resources you can turn to In Urgent Situations: 

• Hospital Emergency: Visit your nearest hospital emergency department.
• Ambulance: Dial triple zero (000) for immediate medical assistance.

Support Services:

• Beyond Blue: Offers guidance for depression and anxiety. Call 1300 224 636.
• Lifeline: Provides critical support and suicide prevention. Contact 131 114.
• Women’s Domestic Crisis Service: For domestic violence support, call 1800 015 188.
• WIRE (Women's Information and Referral Exchange): For information and support, dial 1300 134 130.
• PANDA (Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Australia): For perinatal anxiety and depression support, call 1300 726 306.
• Parent Line: For parent support, reach out to 132 289.
• Sands: Offers support for miscarriage, stillbirth, and newborn death issues. Contact 1300 072 637.

Remember, you are not alone, and reaching out for help is a step toward healing. Your well-being is important, and support is just a phone call away.

"The stuff that hangs out. Does that need to be chopped off?"

No. It doesn't.

When a teenage girl asked Peta Titter (WHEN Founder and CEO) that question, it was clear we needed to talk about what normal actually looks like. So Peta sat down with Barb Lenox, a sexual health nurse who has spent more than 20 years looking at vulvas, and has never once seen a "neat" one.

They get into the difference between your vulva and your vagina (most of us have been using the wrong word our whole lives), why your vagina doesn't need soap, sprays or anything grated into it, and why your black undies are fading. Barb shares her theory on when pubic hair disappeared, and why she'd quite like it back.

They also cover the clitoris, once cut out of a leading anatomy textbook, and the Australian doctor who finally mapped it. Along the way Barb explains the lumps, bumps and discharge that send people to her clinic convinced something is wrong, when it's just their body doing its job.

The episode ends with some practical UTI advice and a simple message: flappy bits are normal. Don't cut off something that gives you pleasure.

Support the show

| www.when.org.au | Copyright Women's Health Education Network |

Need Immediate Help?
If you or someone you know is struggling during the postnatal period, it's crucial to remember that immediate help is available. Here are steps and resources you can turn to In Urgent Situations: 

• Hospital Emergency: Visit your nearest hospital emergency department.
• Ambulance: Dial triple zero (000) for immediate medical assistance.

Support Services:

• Beyond Blue: Offers guidance for depression and anxiety. Call 1300 224 636.
• Lifeline: Provides critical support and suicide prevention. Contact 131 114.
• Women’s Domestic Crisis Service: For domestic violence support, call 1800 015 188.
• WIRE (Women's Information and Referral Exchange): For information and support, dial 1300 134 130.
• PANDA (Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Australia): For perinatal anxiety and depression support, call 1300 726 306.
• Parent Line: For parent support, reach out to 132 289.
• Sands: Offers support for miscarriage, stillbirth, and newborn death issues. Contact 1300 072 637.

Remember, you are not alone, and reaching out for help is a step toward healing. Your well-being is important, and support is just a phone call away.

Influence and Exercise: The Social Media Effect                                                                                          

Are we exercising to be healthy, or to look a certain way?

In this episode, Peta Titter (WHEN Founder and CEO) talks with Bella, a 16-year-old who has thought more carefully about social media than most adults. Bella shares how influencers have shaped the way she sees her body and exercise, both for better and for worse.

She talks about the pressure of comparison, filters so good you can't tell they're there, and a fitness culture where the outfit, the drink bottle and the sunrise count for more than the workout itself. She also explains why the influencers she trusts are the ones who show their bodies as they really are, and how she's learnt to step away from social media when it starts to drain her.

Bella and Peta also talk about how school PE can put girls off exercise for years, from the beep test to being the last one picked for a team.

The episode ends with Bella's tips for working out who's credible online, and her hope that influencers will start using their platforms to help young women instead of making them feel worse.

Support the show

| www.when.org.au | Copyright Women's Health Education Network |

Need Immediate Help?
If you or someone you know is struggling during the postnatal period, it's crucial to remember that immediate help is available. Here are steps and resources you can turn to In Urgent Situations: 

• Hospital Emergency: Visit your nearest hospital emergency department.
• Ambulance: Dial triple zero (000) for immediate medical assistance.

Support Services:

• Beyond Blue: Offers guidance for depression and anxiety. Call 1300 224 636.
• Lifeline: Provides critical support and suicide prevention. Contact 131 114.
• Women’s Domestic Crisis Service: For domestic violence support, call 1800 015 188.
• WIRE (Women's Information and Referral Exchange): For information and support, dial 1300 134 130.
• PANDA (Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Australia): For perinatal anxiety and depression support, call 1300 726 306.
• Parent Line: For parent support, reach out to 132 289.
• Sands: Offers support for miscarriage, stillbirth, and newborn death issues. Contact 1300 072 637.

Remember, you are not alone, and reaching out for help is a step toward healing. Your well-being is important, and support is just a phone call away.

Is it growing pains, or is it an injury? And when should you actually get it checked?

In this episode, Peta Titter (WHEN Founder and CEO) is joined by Chrissy Tadros, an APA titled Sports and Exercise Physiotherapist based in Hobart. Chrissy has worked with Australian Water Polo, North Melbourne AFLW and state-level hockey, and now works in Tasmanian soccer. She also runs Game Bloom, a workshop teaching girls about performance in puberty. The conversation grew out of an injury prevention program Peta and Chrissy ran together with the Tasmanian under-13 state hockey team.

They break down the common injuries in young female athletes, what's modifiable and what isn't, and why load, sleep, fuelling and how girls move all play a part. Chrissy explains how injury prevention warm-ups work, what hypermobility means for training, and why the teenage years are the window for building bone density.

They also tackle the old myth that young people shouldn't lift weights, and why strength training may be the single most useful thing a young athlete can add.

The episode ends with practical advice for parents and athletes, including why an outside voice sometimes gets through when a parent can't, and why learning to read your own body is a skill that lasts a lifetime.

Support the show

| www.when.org.au | Copyright Women's Health Education Network |

Need Immediate Help?
If you or someone you know is struggling during the postnatal period, it's crucial to remember that immediate help is available. Here are steps and resources you can turn to In Urgent Situations: 

• Hospital Emergency: Visit your nearest hospital emergency department.
• Ambulance: Dial triple zero (000) for immediate medical assistance.

Support Services:

• Beyond Blue: Offers guidance for depression and anxiety. Call 1300 224 636.
• Lifeline: Provides critical support and suicide prevention. Contact 131 114.
• Women’s Domestic Crisis Service: For domestic violence support, call 1800 015 188.
• WIRE (Women's Information and Referral Exchange): For information and support, dial 1300 134 130.
• PANDA (Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Australia): For perinatal anxiety and depression support, call 1300 726 306.
• Parent Line: For parent support, reach out to 132 289.
• Sands: Offers support for miscarriage, stillbirth, and newborn death issues. Contact 1300 072 637.

Remember, you are not alone, and reaching out for help is a step toward healing. Your well-being is important, and support is just a phone call away.

Almost every woman will have a diastasis by the end of pregnancy.  A diastasis is when the two sides of your six-pack muscle (rectus abdominis) stretch, thin and move apart to make room for your growing baby. So why is it being sold back to women as a problem they need to fix?

In this episode, Peta Titter (WHEN Founder and CEO, continence nurse and Pilates practitioner) and Dr Rhea Psereckis (WHEN Medical Director, GP and public health doctor) take on one of the most controversial topics in women's health, and one Peta has spent over a decade researching.

They explain why a diastasis happens and the job it does in pregnancy, why "core" means far more than your six-pack, and why function should always come before aesthetics. They also unpack what the research can and can't tell us, including why there's still no agreed definition and no single exercise program proven to fix it.

Along the way they trace some popular fitness claims back to their source, including sit-ups in pregnancy, and look at checking, binding and surgery.

The episode ends with a simple message: listen to your body, and if someone is charging you money to fix your diastasis in six weeks, walk away.

Support the show

| www.when.org.au | Copyright Women's Health Education Network |

Need Immediate Help?
If you or someone you know is struggling during the postnatal period, it's crucial to remember that immediate help is available. Here are steps and resources you can turn to In Urgent Situations: 

• Hospital Emergency: Visit your nearest hospital emergency department.
• Ambulance: Dial triple zero (000) for immediate medical assistance.

Support Services:

• Beyond Blue: Offers guidance for depression and anxiety. Call 1300 224 636.
• Lifeline: Provides critical support and suicide prevention. Contact 131 114.
• Women’s Domestic Crisis Service: For domestic violence support, call 1800 015 188.
• WIRE (Women's Information and Referral Exchange): For information and support, dial 1300 134 130.
• PANDA (Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Australia): For perinatal anxiety and depression support, call 1300 726 306.
• Parent Line: For parent support, reach out to 132 289.
• Sands: Offers support for miscarriage, stillbirth, and newborn death issues. Contact 1300 072 637.

Remember, you are not alone, and reaching out for help is a step toward healing. Your well-being is important, and support is just a phone call away.

In this episode, Peta Titter (WHEN Founder and CEO) and Katie Ennis (WHEN Senior Clinical Nurse) talk openly about going through perimenopause together, and the impact it had on their brains and mental health.

Forget the hot flushes and tears you see on screen. For Peta it was rage and brain fog. For Katie, symptoms were hidden behind her arthritis and a busy life. Both were shocked by how little they knew, even as nurses.

They discuss how falling oestrogen affects memory, mood and confidence, why women are being misdiagnosed and retiring early, why diagnosis should be based on symptoms rather than a single blood test, and the different forms of hormone therapy, including the cost and stigma that stop women accessing it.

The episode ends with practical steps for getting help, from your GP to women's health clinics, and a reminder that you shouldn't have to just live with it.

Theme music:  performed by Jill Norton and Tim Jones (Black Cockatoo Music)
Hosted by Peta Titter and Katie Ennis
Audio Editing by Cameron Heit | Production Farm
Writer and researcher: WHEN clinical governance team

Support the show

| www.when.org.au | Copyright Women's Health Education Network |

Need Immediate Help?
If you or someone you know is struggling during the postnatal period, it's crucial to remember that immediate help is available. Here are steps and resources you can turn to In Urgent Situations: 

• Hospital Emergency: Visit your nearest hospital emergency department.
• Ambulance: Dial triple zero (000) for immediate medical assistance.

Support Services:

• Beyond Blue: Offers guidance for depression and anxiety. Call 1300 224 636.
• Lifeline: Provides critical support and suicide prevention. Contact 131 114.
• Women’s Domestic Crisis Service: For domestic violence support, call 1800 015 188.
• WIRE (Women's Information and Referral Exchange): For information and support, dial 1300 134 130.
• PANDA (Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Australia): For perinatal anxiety and depression support, call 1300 726 306.
• Parent Line: For parent support, reach out to 132 289.
• Sands: Offers support for miscarriage, stillbirth, and newborn death issues. Contact 1300 072 637.

Remember, you are not alone, and reaching out for help is a step toward healing. Your well-being is important, and support is just a phone call away.

Why 'The Little Black Dress Of Women’s Health’ ?  The little black dress is a basic in our wardrobe. We go to it because we trust it and know that it can be worn anywhere. It's basic but reliable.  These podcasts are exactly that. It Is information every woman should have. To feel informed about their bodies, know how to prevent or manage change and know when to seek support.

In this first episode, Peta Titter (WHEN Founder and CEO, continence nurse and Pilates practitioner) and Dr Rhea Psereckis (WHEN Medical Director, GP and public health doctor) introduce themselves and explain why WHEN started.

They share the experiences that brought them to this work. Peta talks about her own pelvic floor injury after her first baby and her discovery that pregnancy exercise guidelines were written to keep the baby safe, not the woman. Rhea opens up about how her long history of eating disorders led to incontinence in her twenties, and why she never went back for help.

They also unpack why "getting your body back" is a failed concept, why WHEN uses the word power instead of empower, and what women said when WHEN asked them directly instead of assuming.

The episode ends with a call for women to be discerning about the health information they find online, and an invitation to send in the topics you want covered.

Support the show

| www.when.org.au | Copyright Women's Health Education Network |

Need Immediate Help?
If you or someone you know is struggling during the postnatal period, it's crucial to remember that immediate help is available. Here are steps and resources you can turn to In Urgent Situations: 

• Hospital Emergency: Visit your nearest hospital emergency department.
• Ambulance: Dial triple zero (000) for immediate medical assistance.

Support Services:

• Beyond Blue: Offers guidance for depression and anxiety. Call 1300 224 636.
• Lifeline: Provides critical support and suicide prevention. Contact 131 114.
• Women’s Domestic Crisis Service: For domestic violence support, call 1800 015 188.
• WIRE (Women's Information and Referral Exchange): For information and support, dial 1300 134 130.
• PANDA (Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Australia): For perinatal anxiety and depression support, call 1300 726 306.
• Parent Line: For parent support, reach out to 132 289.
• Sands: Offers support for miscarriage, stillbirth, and newborn death issues. Contact 1300 072 637.

Remember, you are not alone, and reaching out for help is a step toward healing. Your well-being is important, and support is just a phone call away.