WomenKind Collective

Link to Pre Order: Tackling Gender Bias in The Healthcare System. What Patient stories Teach Us About Implementing Systemic Change: https://www.waterstones.com/book/tackling-gender-bias-in-the-healthcare-system/louise-hockings-thompson/jinty-sheerin/9781805018810

The history of women's bodies is, in many ways, a history of what men decided women should and shouldn't know. From Aristotle's declaration that the female form was a "defective" version of the male, to Freud's wildly influential and wildly wrong theories about female psychology, medicine has long been shaped by shame and a striking resistance to progress.

Today, the censorship has simply migrated from the anatomy textbook to the algorithm: the word vagina can get your content suppressed, women's health ads get pulled without explanation, and gynaecological cancer campaigns get taken down.

This week we're joined by Clio Wood, women's health advocate, journalist, author of Get Your Mojo Back: Sex, Pleasure and Intimacy After Birth, and founder of wellbeing retreat company &Breathe together with Anna O'Sullivan,founder of FutureFemHealth, they co-founded CensHERship,an advocacy and research initiative tackling the censorship and bias affecting women's health online.

We talk about :

• The moment that pushed Clio to act, the compromises creators make (swapping "vagina" for a grapefruit emoji)

• Whether that reinforces the very shame they're fighting,

• The eye-opening data: 95% of the 150+ organisations they surveyed had experienced censorship in the last year.

• We also dig into the double standard between men's and women's health content,

• The real-world cost of suppressed information, self-censorship and body shame,

• Algorithms, and what's going on here

• Where CensHERship is actually seeing change.

Plus, Jinty's got a stack of fun fly facts that you can impress your friends with, and stick around till the end for some inspiration to carry you through the week.

☕ SUBSCRIBE for honest chats on women's health, feminist issues, sisterhood & smashing the patriarchy, one cuppa at a time.

💛 Enjoying the podcast? Please share, leave us a review or comment!

If you'd like to, you can buy us a coffee at Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/womenkindcollectivepodcast

💬 We love hearing from you — email your ideas to Jinty & Lou at [email protected]

👀 Join us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/womenkindcollective?igsh=ZmxmbGs2d3BjcXA1&utm_source=qr

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/womenkind-collective/id1557937820

🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/42KniEtc5WGQhNvREsN1WP?si=e14a83c93a304bb3

And all your favourite podcast platforms.

Thank you for listening.

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

FURTHER INFORMATION:

Web: https://censhership.com/

      https://andbreathewellbeing.com/censhership

Socials: Insta: @censhershipcampaignofficial 

       LinkedIn: @CensHERship

☕ SUBSCRIBE for honest chats on women’s health, feminist issues, sisterhood & smashing the patriarchy, one cuppa at a time.

💛 Enjoying the podcast? Please share, leave us a review or comment!

If you would like to you can Buy us a coffee at Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/womenkindcollectivepodcast

💬 We love hearing from you, email us your ideas here Jinty & Lou @ [email protected]

👀 Join us on instagram here https://www.instagram.com/womenkindcollective?igsh=ZmxmbGs2d3BjcXA1&utm_source=qr

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/womenkind-collective/id1557937820

🎧 Listen on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/42KniEtc5WGQhNvREsN1WP?si=e14a83c93a304bb3

And all your favourite Podcast Platforms

Thank you for Listening

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

Link to Pre Order: Tackling Gender Bias in The Healthcare System. What Patient stories Teach Us About Implementing Systemic Change: https://www.waterstones.com/book/tackling-gender-bias-in-the-healthcare-system/louise-hockings-thompson/jinty-sheerin/9781805018810

She was 16 years old, newly separated from her home country, when she received a diagnosis that would reshape everything she thought she knew about herself, her body, and her place in the world.

Natalia Shvarts was born with Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser Syndrome, MRKH, a rare condition affecting over 10,000 women in the UK, where the vagina and uterus are underdeveloped or absent.

It would take years, and a memoir, to find her way home to herself.

In this episode, we sit down with Natalia, solicitor, speaker, MRKH advocate, and author of I Don't Matter: In Search of Home, for an honest, unflinching conversation about what it means to be told, as a teenager, that your body is different, and to spend years rebuilding your identity from that moment on.

We explore the diagnosis itself, what Natalia was told at sixteen and how she made sense of it; what MRKH actually is and why it remains so widely undiagnosed; the profound question she found herself asking in those early years: "If real women bleed, what even was I?"; navigating vaginal dilation as a teenager, largely alone and without adequate support; where gender bias shows up in MRKH care and how the medical system fails women with the condition; the loneliness, secrecy and shame that surrounded her diagnosis and her family's reaction to it; entering the UK's first womb transplant trial and the moment she made the decision to withdraw; the link between her diagnosis, people pleasing, and finding herself in a relationship involving coercive control; her mental health reaching a crisis point and why she speaks about it publicly; and what reclaiming her identity and reaching acceptance has actually looked like in practice.

This episode also features our women's rights quiz and it makes for genuinely shocking listening.

And this week we have something quite special: a Jinty Joke to make you smile through the week.

Natalia's memoir is raw, necessary, and deeply human. This is the kind of conversation that reminds you why we spill the tea.

☕ SUBSCRIBE for honest chats on women's health, feminist issues, sisterhood & smashing the patriarchy, one cuppa at a time.

💛 Enjoying the podcast? Please share, leave us a review or comment — it helps more women find us!

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💬 Email us your ideas: [email protected]

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🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/womenkind-collective/id1557937820

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Thank you for listening.

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

Further Information on MRKH:

Web: https://mrkhconnect.co.uk/

https://www.imperial.nhs.uk/mrkh/support

Books:

I Don’t Matter: In Search of Home. Natalia Shvarts. Independently Published. 2025.

Vagina Uncensored: A Memoir of Missing Parts. Ally Hensley. Whitefox Publishing. 2024

Socials:

Natalia Shvarts: @kiska115

MRKH Community: @mindovermrkh

Charity: @mrkhconnect

☕ SUBSCRIBE for honest chats on women’s health, feminist issues, sisterhood & smashing the patriarchy, one cuppa at a time.

💛 Enjoying the podcast? Please share, leave us a review or comment!

If you would like to you can Buy us a coffee at Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/womenkindcollectivepodcast

💬 We love hearing from you, email us your ideas here Jinty & Lou @ [email protected]

👀 Join us on instagram here https://www.instagram.com/womenkindcollective?igsh=ZmxmbGs2d3BjcXA1&utm_source=qr

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/womenkind-collective/id1557937820

🎧 Listen on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/42KniEtc5WGQhNvREsN1WP?si=e14a83c93a304bb3

And all your favourite Podcast Platforms

Thank you for Listening

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

Link to Pre Order: Tackling Gender Bias in The Healthcare System. What Patient stories Teach Us About Implementing Systemic Change: https://www.waterstones.com/book/tackling-gender-bias-in-the-healthcare-system/louise-hockings-thompson/jinty-sheerin/9781805018810

In this episode, we are joined by Fay Peace, a woman whose experience of navigating the healthcare system is both deeply personal and heartbreakingly familiar.

After visiting her GP in 2019 with symptoms she knew felt wrong, Fay spent nearly two years being dismissed, told it was probably the perimenopause, or perhaps a UTI before finally being diagnosed with stage 3 womb cancer in 2021.

Womb cancer, also known as uterine cancer, is the fourth most common cancer in women in the UK, with around 9,800 new cases diagnosed every year.

Incidence rates have risen by nearly 60% since the early 1990s. And yet it remains one of the least talked-about gynaecological cancers which is exactly why conversations like this one matter.

In this conversation, Fay takes us back to the very beginning: what her early symptoms were like, why they were so easy to explain away, and at what point she began to sense something serious was being missed.

She talks honestly about what it felt like to have her instincts dismissed, including the moment her surgeon told her it was stage 1 and "nothing to worry about" only for that to change.

She shares what it was really like to go through chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and brachytherapy, and what kept her going.

We list the main symptoms to look our for, the need for early detection diagnostics and the importance of primary care listening to a patients real concerns and symptoms.

Fay didn't stay silent. She channelled her experience into action, launching her campaign #CheckYouOut she’s on a mission to get the symptoms of all five gynaecological cancers (cervical, womb, ovarian, vaginal, and vulval) onto everyday product packaging. She's already secured a significant win, convincing Bodyform to redirect their QR code to The Eve Appeal and she's just getting started.

We also discover the surprisingly delightful origin of the word "berk," and close, as always, with something beautiful to carry you through the week. ☕

If you're experiencing symptoms you're worried about, please speak to your GP.

For more information on gynaecological cancers, visit The Eve Appeal at: https://eveappeal.org.uk/information-and-advice/gynaecological-cancers/ovarian-cancer/

You can folow Fay on social media https://www.instagram.com/cancercampaigner?igsh=aXVob3N2YXlzNWpo

☕ Enjoying the podcast? Subscribe, leave a review, and share with someone who needs to hear this.

💛 Buy us a coffee at Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/womenkindcollectivepodcast

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🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/womenkind-collective/id1557937820

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Available on all your favourite podcast platforms.

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

☕ SUBSCRIBE for honest chats on women’s health, feminist issues, sisterhood & smashing the patriarchy, one cuppa at a time.

💛 Enjoying the podcast? Please share, leave us a review or comment!

If you would like to you can Buy us a coffee at Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/womenkindcollectivepodcast

💬 We love hearing from you, email us your ideas here Jinty & Lou @ [email protected]

👀 Join us on instagram here https://www.instagram.com/womenkindcollective?igsh=ZmxmbGs2d3BjcXA1&utm_source=qr

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/womenkind-collective/id1557937820

🎧 Listen on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/42KniEtc5WGQhNvREsN1WP?si=e14a83c93a304bb3

And all your favourite Podcast Platforms

Thank you for Listening

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

Link to Pre Order: Tackling Gender Bias in The Healthcare System. What Patient stories Teach Us About Implementing Systemic Change: https://www.waterstones.com/book/tackling-gender-bias-in-the-healthcare-system/louise-hockings-thompson/jinty-sheerin/9781805018810

This week on Spill The Tea, Lou and Jinty are joined by Sarah West, a nurse, ADHD coach, and passionate advocate for women who've spent years being everything except correctly diagnosed.

Sarah first joined us in Series 12, Episode 3 to share her own story. Now she's back as part of our Gender Bias in Healthcare series, and this conversation goes deeper.

• Together we explore how ADHD research was almost entirely built around hyperactive boys and
• the lasting legacy for generations of women and girls who simply didn't fit that picture.
• We discuss why girls tend to internalise where boys externalise, and whether that's still playing out in referral pathways today.
• We examine why so many women receive anxiety, depression, or even bipolar diagnoses before anyone considers ADHD and what it does to a woman to have her neurology repeatedly mistaken for a mood disorder.
• Sarah also tackles the topic of perimenopause and how it can dramatically unmask ADHD symptoms,
• the emerging research linking ADHD and autism with hypermobility,
• the "over-diagnosis" backlash and whether that criticism is actually a gender bias story in disguise,
• plus what still needs to change, and what good post-diagnosis support should look like.

We also share what we’ve been up to this week, and stick around for some beautiful inspiration to carry you through the week.

☕ Subscribe for honest chats on women's health, feminist issues, sisterhood & smashing the patriarchy one cuppa at a time.

💛 Enjoying the podcast? Please share, leave us a review or comment! 🙏 Scroll down ⬇️

☕ Buy us a coffee at Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/womenkindcollectivepodcast

💬 Email Jinty & Lou: [email protected]

👀 Join us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/womenkindcollective?igsh=ZmxmbGs2d3BjcXA1&utm_source=qr

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/womenkind-collective/id1557937820

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Thank you for listening 💛

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Sarah West:

Web: https://www.sarahwest-adhd.com/

LinkedIn: Sarah West

Insta: @sarahwest_adhd

 ADHD & Menopause Book by Dr Helen Wall - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Menopause-ADHD-neurodivergence-Vermilion-Empowered/dp/178504642X

Sarah West ADHD & Menopause, previous episode here - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/adhd-late-diagnosis-with-adhd-coach-sarah-west/id1557937820?i=1000687993934

Further Information: & Support

Web: https://adhduk.co.uk

Books: Menopause and ADHD: How to Navigate Hormone Flux and Neurodivergence. Dr Helen Wall. Vermillion. 2026

☕ SUBSCRIBE for honest chats on women’s health, feminist issues, sisterhood & smashing the patriarchy, one cuppa at a time.

💛 Enjoying the podcast? Please share, leave us a review or comment!

If you would like to you can Buy us a coffee at Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/womenkindcollectivepodcast

💬 We love hearing from you, email us your ideas here Jinty & Lou @ [email protected]

👀 Join us on instagram here https://www.instagram.com/womenkindcollective?igsh=ZmxmbGs2d3BjcXA1&utm_source=qr

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/womenkind-collective/id1557937820

🎧 Listen on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/42KniEtc5WGQhNvREsN1WP?si=e14a83c93a304bb3

And all your favourite Podcast Platforms

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

Link to Pre Order: Tackling Gender Bias in The Healthcare System. What Patient stories Teach Us About Implementing Systemic Change: https://www.waterstones.com/book/tackling-gender-bias-in-the-healthcare-system/louise-hockings-thompson/jinty-sheerin/9781805018810

Description: Internalised Misogyny in Healthcare

Have you ever been told you're too much? Too emotional, too sensitive or not sick enough, not convincing enough, or just not the right kind of patient? And have you ever walked out of an appointment with a female doctor feeling like that was somehow worse?

You're not imagining it. This week, we're talking about why.

We're joined by Sophie Lee, founder and CEO of Electric Peach and author of Beyond Palatable, a manifesto for women who are done shrinking. Together we unpack internalised misogyny: what it is, how it shows up in the consulting room, among our friends, and sometimes in ourselves.

We explore why women are conditioned to police each other's health experiences, why dismissal from female clinicians can feel particularly shocking, and how we can start to check our own internalised biases. Sophie also shares her powerful perspective on self-advocacy in medical spaces, the exhausting cost of making ourselves palatable, and as a newly expectant mother how navigating maternity care has brought all of this into sharp focus.

If you've ever contorted yourself to be believed, this episode is for you. 💛

Stick around for some beautiful inspiration to carry you through the week.

☕ SUBSCRIBE for honest chats on women's health, feminist issues, sisterhood & smashing the patriarchy, one cuppa at a time. 

Enjoying the podcast? Please share, leave us a review or comment! 

☕ Buy us a coffee at Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/womenkindcollectivepodcast 💬 We love hearing from you — email us your ideas: [email protected]

👀 Join us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/womenkindcollective?igsh=ZmxmbGs2d3BjcXA1&utm_source=qr 🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/womenkind-collective/id1557937820 🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/42KniEtc5WGQhNvREsN1WP?si=e14a83c93a304bb3 🎧 And all your favourite Podcast Platforms

Thank you for listening 💛

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

Sophie Lee:

Web: https://electricpeach.co.uk/about/

Instagram: @electricpeachstudios

Linked In: Sophie Jane Lee

Book: Beyond Palatable. A Manifesto For Unapologetic Women. Sophie Jane Lee. Luath Press Ltd. 2026

Rhiannon Lucy Coslett Parenting book we discussed - https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-republic-of-parenthood/rhiannon-lucy-cosslett/pia-bramley/9780715655856

☕ SUBSCRIBE for honest chats on women’s health, feminist issues, sisterhood & smashing the patriarchy, one cuppa at a time.

💛 Enjoying the podcast? Please share, leave us a review or comment!

If you would like to you can Buy us a coffee at Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/womenkindcollectivepodcast

💬 We love hearing from you, email us your ideas here Jinty & Lou @ [email protected]

👀 Join us on instagram here https://www.instagram.com/womenkindcollective?igsh=ZmxmbGs2d3BjcXA1&utm_source=qr

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/womenkind-collective/id1557937820

🎧 Listen on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/42KniEtc5WGQhNvREsN1WP?si=e14a83c93a304bb3

And all your favourite Podcast Platforms

Thank you for Listening

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

Pre Order: Tackling Gender Bias in The Healthcare System. What Patient stories Teach Us About Implementing Systemic Change: https://www.waterstones.com/book/tackling-gender-bias-in-the-healthcare-system/louise-hockings-thompson/jinty-sheerin/9781805018810

This week on WKC Spill The Tea we sit down with Jen, a Menopause Awareness trainer, cancer charity volunteer, and mental health advocate, who experienced the credibility gap first-hand. She went to her GP with real symptoms and was asked if it was all in her head. It wasn't. Dismissed by her consultant, Jen was eventually diagnosed with Medullary Thyroid Cancer, a rare cancer and her journey since has transformed her into a powerful advocate for women's health.

In this honest, moving conversation, we explore:

• The moment Jen was made to feel her symptoms weren't real and how she responded

• What Medullary Thyroid Cancer is,

• What treatment looked like, and what she wishes she'd known sooner

• The often-overlooked connection between cancer treatment and menopause

• Her work training workplaces in menopause awareness and volunteering with a menopause and cancer charity

Jen is raw, real, and utterly compelling and she has a message for every woman whose pain has ever been dismissed.

We talk about a great feminist book club online, and the origin of some of our favourite phrases. Stick around for some beautiful inspiration to carry you through the week.

☕ SUBSCRIBE for honest chats on women's health, feminist issues, sisterhood & smashing the patriarchy, one cuppa at a time.

💛 Enjoying the podcast? Please share, leave us a review or comment!

Buy us a coffee at Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/womenkindcollectivepodcast

💬 We love hearing from you, email Jinty & Lou: [email protected]

👀 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/womenkindcollective?igsh=ZmxmbGs2d3BjcXA1&utm_source=qr

🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/womenkind-collective/id1557937820

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/42KniEtc5WGQhNvREsN1WP?si=e14a83c93a304bb3

And all your favourite podcast platforms.

Thank you for listening.

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

Jen:

Web: www.menopauselifebyjen.com

I: @menopauselifebyjen

Menopause and Cancer:

Web: www.menopauseandcancer.org

Good Book Club:

https://goodbookclub.co.uk/

☕ SUBSCRIBE for honest chats on women’s health, feminist issues, sisterhood & smashing the patriarchy, one cuppa at a time.

💛 Enjoying the podcast? Please share, leave us a review or comment!

If you would like to you can Buy us a coffee at Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/womenkindcollectivepodcast

💬 We love hearing from you, email us your ideas here Jinty & Lou @ [email protected]

👀 Join us on instagram here https://www.instagram.com/womenkindcollective?igsh=ZmxmbGs2d3BjcXA1&utm_source=qr

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/womenkind-collective/id1557937820

🎧 Listen on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/42KniEtc5WGQhNvREsN1WP?si=e14a83c93a304bb3

And all your favourite Podcast Platforms

Thank you for Listening

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

This week, Jinty and Lou sit down with Rosie Taylor, award-winning investigative journalist, broadcaster, media consultant, and host of the Mother Bodies podcast. Rosie has spent a decade reporting on women's health and family life for some of the UK's biggest publications. But what sets her apart is this: she hasn't just reported on the crisis in maternity care, she's lived it. Her own experience of birth trauma sent her on a mission to understand what is going wrong in our maternity system, and she has been reporting and campaigning on it ever since.

In this powerful and eye-opening conversation, we explore:

→ How Rosie went from personal anger to understanding this as a systemic failure.

→ Why postnatal care is described as the "Cinderella" of midwifery and why just £250 is allocated per woman postnatally vs £2,800 for antenatal care.

→ The shocking dismissal of women in crisis including one who was told "stop making a fuss, everyone has babies" while suffering massive internal bleeding.

→ The paradox of understaffed maternity wards and newly qualified midwives unable to find jobs.

→ How racially minoritised women, disabled women, and those facing economic hardship are being failed most severely.

→ Whether the 12 recommendations from the 2024 maternity inquiry are being acted upon and why nearly two thirds of maternal deaths happen postnatally.

→ How patriarchal medical systems have systematically stripped power from midwives and mothers.

→ What excellent maternity care actually looks like, and where we go from here

We also chat about our week, including a new film that's just dropped and exactly how much alcohol is being drunk in parliament. Hear us rant! We end with something beautiful to carry you through the week. 🌸

☕ SUBSCRIBE for honest chats on women's health, feminist issues, sisterhood & smashing the patriarchy, one cuppa at a time.

💛 Enjoying the podcast? Please share, leave us a review or comment — it means the world to us!

If you'd like to support the show, you can Buy us a coffee at Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/womenkindcollectivepodcast

💬 We love hearing from you — email us your ideas: [email protected]

Pre-Order our book, Tackling Gender Bias In The Healthcare System here - https://www.waterstones.com/book/tackling-gender-bias-in-the-healthcare-system/louise-hockings-thompson/jinty-sheerin/9781805018810

👀 Join us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/womenkindcollective?igsh=ZmxmbGs2d3BjcXA1&utm_source=qr 🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/womenkind-collective/id1557937820 🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/42KniEtc5WGQhNvREsN1WP?si=e14a83c93a304bb3

And on all your favourite podcast platforms.

Thank you for listening. 💛

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

Rosie Taylor:

Web: https://www.rosietaylorjournalism.com/

Instagram: @rosietaylorjournalism

Linked In: Rosie Taylor – Freelance Journalist

Substack: Rosie Taylor

For further help & support:

https://www.birthtraumaassociation.org/

https://pandasfoundation.org.uk/what-is-pnd/birth-trauma/

https://masic.org.uk/

https://www.tommys.org/

☕ SUBSCRIBE for honest chats on women’s health, feminist issues, sisterhood & smashing the patriarchy, one cuppa at a time.

💛 Enjoying the podcast? Please share, leave us a review or comment!

If you would like to you can Buy us a coffee at Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/womenkindcollectivepodcast

💬 We love hearing from you, email us your ideas here Jinty & Lou @ [email protected]

👀 Join us on instagram here https://www.instagram.com/womenkindcollective?igsh=ZmxmbGs2d3BjcXA1&utm_source=qr

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/womenkind-collective/id1557937820

🎧 Listen on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/42KniEtc5WGQhNvREsN1WP?si=e14a83c93a304bb3

And all your favourite Podcast Platforms

Thank you for Listening

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

Link to Pre Order: Tackling Gender Bias in The Healthcare System. What Patient stories Teach Us About Implementing Systemic Change: https://www.waterstones.com/book/tackling-gender-bias-in-the-healthcare-system/louise-hockings-thompson/jinty-sheerin/9781805018810

Our guest today is Neelam Heera-Shergill, founder and CEO of Cysters, a community-led charity with national reach working at the intersection of menstrual health, maternal care and mental well-being.

When we talk about gender bias in healthcare, we're really talking about a system that has historically been designed for men. But what happens when you exist outside that narrow template in more ways than one? Neelam knows that story intimately, and has built something extraordinary in response to it.

Rooted in grassroots activism and collective liberation, Cysters exists to challenge the stigma, systemic barriers and cultural silence that prevents so many people particularly those from ethnically diverse communities from getting the care they deserve. Neelam's work spans advocacy, creative storytelling, policy influence and community building, all driven by a simple but radical belief: that menstrual and maternal care should never be a privilege.

In this conversation we explore:

· How Cysters began with one voice and one lived experience and the moment Neelam knew she had to turn it into something bigger.

· Why the framing of ethnically diverse communities as "hard to reach" says far more about the system than the community and what Cysters' evidence actually shows.

· The real problem at the heart of healthcare inequity: "a lack of listening, referring, believing."

· Through our research for our book, we found that women from deprived areas and marginalised communities are doubly disadvantaged when it comes to healthcare and whether Neelam's findings reflect the same.

· The specific conditions endometriosis, PMOS, miscarriage, menopause where the intersection of gender and ethnicity creates particularly stark gaps in care.

· How Cysters holds space for communities where menstruation carries cultural silence or shame, while still challenging it.

· The ways Cysters has influenced real research and policy, and how a community of voices is making a tangible difference.

· What a genuinely equitable reproductive healthcare system would look like and the two or three things that would need to change first.

· Why "radical love and care" sits at the centre of Cysters' work, and why that language matters in a world of policy documents and research reports.

We also catch up on our adventurous week hiking with Ramble Worldwide and Ageism is Never In Style in the Lake District with a wonderful group of like-minded women and we chat about why pre-orders for books truly matter (did you know we've got a book coming out in September?)

Stick around for some beautiful inspiration to carry you through the week.

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 Cysters: Web: https://www.cysters.org/

Insta: @cystersgroup

We talked about:

SUP Jo Mosely - jomosely.com

Ramble Worldwide - rambleworldwide.co.uk

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💬 We love hearing from you, email us your ideas here Jinty & Lou @ [email protected]

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This week on Spill The Tea, we're having the conversation the NHS seems reluctant to. We sit down with Jocelyn, who at 36 went into premature menopause, and years later underwent a hysteroscopy a procedure she was wholly unprepared for.

What followed was agonising pain, zero adequate warning, and a long road to discovering she was far from alone. Jocelyn found her way to Hysteroscopy Action, a UK campaign fighting for patients' rights to proper pain relief and informed consent and she's here to help make sure you're better informed than she was.

Together we unpack what a hysteroscopy is, why so many women are still suffering needlessly, and the question we simply won't let go of: if this were a procedure routinely performed on men, would "take a paracetamol" ever be considered adequate?

We also catch up on our week and chat about our new BFF Jane Green and her hotly anticipated memoir Rewilding, out in June one to pre-order immediately. Plus, we close with some beautiful inspiration to carry you through the week. 🌿

Whether you've had a hysteroscopy, have one coming up, or simply want to understand why the gender pain gap is still very much alive this episode is for you.

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💛 Enjoying the podcast? Please share, leave us a review or comment!

If you would like to you can Buy us a coffee at Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/womenkindcollectivepodcast

💬 We love hearing from you, email us your ideas here Jinty & Lou @ [email protected]

👀 Join us on Instagram here https://www.instagram.com/womenkindcollective?igsh=ZmxmbGs2d3BjcXA1&utm_source=qr

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/womenkind-collective/id1557937820

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Hysteroscopy Action: https://www.hysteroscopyaction.org.uk/

Instagram: @campaign_painful_hysteroscopy 

Petition: End barbaric NHS hysteroscopies with inadequate pain-relief: https://www.change.org/p/secretary-of-state-for-health-end-barbaric-nhs-hysteroscopies-with-inadequate-pain-relief

Jane Green New Memoir: Rewilding: Freedom, Friendship and Finding Our Way Home. Release Date: 4 June 2026, pre-orders available: Harper Collins

☕ SUBSCRIBE for honest chats on women’s health, feminist issues, sisterhood & smashing the patriarchy, one cuppa at a time.

💛 Enjoying the podcast? Please share, leave us a review or comment!

If you would like to you can Buy us a coffee at Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/womenkindcollectivepodcast

💬 We love hearing from you, email us your ideas here Jinty & Lou @ [email protected]

👀 Join us on instagram here https://www.instagram.com/womenkindcollective?igsh=ZmxmbGs2d3BjcXA1&utm_source=qr

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/womenkind-collective/id1557937820

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Link to Pre Order: Tackling Gender Bias in The Healthcare System. What Patient stories Teach Us About Implementing Systemic Change: https://www.waterstones.com/book/tackling-gender-bias-in-the-healthcare-system/louise-hockings-thompson/jinty-sheerin/9781805018810

Welcome back! Series 16 is here, and we're spending the whole series investigating gender bias and misogyny in healthcare, building up to the publication of our book in September.

And what better place to begin than to Spill the Tea with Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Wes Streeting and Women's Health Minister Baroness Gillian Merron? We ask them about the revised Women's Health Strategy that launched in April, and how they plan to tackle misogyny and racial bias at its very core.

We also examine the striking funding figures that journalist Rosie Taylor revealed when comparing the Women's Health Strategy with the Men's Health Strategy launched in November along with our own thoughts.

Plus, find out all about our adventures trekking the Higher Atlas Mountains with a female-led expedition that took us above the clouds and into beautiful villages. And stick around for some beautiful inspiration to carry you through the week.

☕ SUBSCRIBE for honest chats on women's health, feminist issues, sisterhood & smashing the patriarchy, one cuppa at a time.

💛 Enjoying the podcast? Please share, leave us a review or comment!

If you would like to, you can Buy us a coffee at Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/womenkindcollectivepodcast

💬 We love hearing from you — email your ideas to Jinty & Lou: [email protected]

👀 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/womenkindcollective

🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/womenkind-collective/id1557937820

🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/42KniEtc5WGQhNvREsN1WP

Available on all your favourite podcast platforms. Thank you for listening.

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The Renewed Women’s Health Strategy For England: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69df5d7261d2e8e9b9e42d2e/renewed-womens-health-strategy-for-england-web-accessible.pdf

Rosie Taylor: Instagram: @rosietaylorjournalism 

Rosie Taylor Times article: https://www.thetimes.com/uk/healthcare/article/womens-health-funding-less-than-mens-health-6k6l6pljw

☕ SUBSCRIBE for honest chats on women’s health, feminist issues, sisterhood & smashing the patriarchy, one cuppa at a time.

💛 Enjoying the podcast? Please share, leave us a review or comment!

If you would like to you can Buy us a coffee at Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/womenkindcollectivepodcast

💬 We love hearing from you, email us your ideas here Jinty & Lou @ [email protected]

👀 Join us on instagram here https://www.instagram.com/womenkindcollective?igsh=ZmxmbGs2d3BjcXA1&utm_source=qr

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/womenkind-collective/id1557937820

🎧 Listen on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/42KniEtc5WGQhNvREsN1WP?si=e14a83c93a304bb3

And all your favourite Podcast Platforms

Thank you for Listening

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