CRAMPED
by Kate Helen Downey
Latest episode
Is There a Conspiracy to Keep Women in Pain? with Unladylike
Is There a Conspiracy to Keep Women in Pain? with Unladylike
About this podcast
Tired of suffering from "death cramps" for 20 years, Kate Helen Downey has to find her own answers. She interviews top doctors and researchers, and delves into topics from period poops to endometriosis surgery to TikTok wellness scams, all to figure out why menstrual pain is so often dismissed and untreated. What she finds will change how you think about your own body and the medical system. Because having a microphone gets you more answers than having a uterus.
Episodes
The newest 20 of 66 episodes
- Is There a Conspiracy to Keep Women in Pain? with Unladylike · 1 h 2 min · Episode 54The more we learn about period pain, the less sense it makes that it's so under-researched and under-treated. Am I paranoid or is it almost...suspicious? I invited Cristen Conger…
- Guillotines, Axe Murders, and Menstrual Blood: A CRAMPED Halloween · 12 min · Season 2 Episode 53Join the Patreon (even at the free tier) to listen to the full episode! https://www.patreon.com/CRAMPEDDid Lizzie Borden get away with murdering her father and stepmother in 1892…
- You Might Like: Pleasure People (produced by Kate!) · 29 minThis whole year, I've been secretly working on a 6-episode audio series about the Magic Wand Study - and now it's out!I teamed up with DB from Sex Ed with DB, and CRAMPED Season…
- Wulf Women: The Endo Surgeon Directory Built by a Patient Who Got Burned · 56 min · Season 2 Episode 52Deb's story sounds like a lot of crampers' stories: she was on birth control, started having pain and GI issues, and sought answers from her doctor. Despite doing her research…
- Rediscovered: The Rete Ovarii, Not So Vestigial After All! · 36 min · Season 2 Episode 51Maybe you've heard - if you've got ovaries, you've got a whole new organ! Well, "new" as in "recognized by science for the first time since the 1800s". It's been in there, doing…
- PCOS is now PMOS: Why Did It Take 20 Years of Debate To Get A Medically Accurate Name? · 32 min · Season 2 Episode 50You probably saw the news: the condition formerly known as Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) is now Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovary Syndrome (PMOS). So...what does that mean…
- Endo Excision Surgeon Dr. Iris Orbuch: Why She Can't Take Insurance · 19 min · Season 2 Episode 49Join the Patreon (even at the free tier) to listen to the full episode! https://www.patreon.com/CRAMPEDWhy do so few endometriosis excision surgeons take insurance? In this 2024…
- Your Uterus Sends a Monthly Report. Someone's Finally Reading It! w/ Ridhi Tariyal · 46 min · Season 2 Episode 48I talk to co-founder and CEO Ridhi Tariyal about the information in menstrual effluent that's missing from a regular blood draw, and how NextGen Jane is using it to come at…
- The GYRL Lab is Doing The Viagra For Cramps Follow-Up Study! · 35 min · Season 2 Episode 47In 2013 a Penn State study found that Viagra was extremely effective for period pain. But the sample size was too small, and requests for funding to continue the study were…
- The Personal Finances of Period Pain w Tori Dunlap · 48 min · Season 2 Episode 43One thing I've learned in the last 23 years of severe period pain - it's EXPENSIVE! Between the medications and devices to manage the pain, lost wages from extra sick days, and…
- Are There Heavy Metals in Our Tampons, and Is That...OK? · 11 min · Season 2 Episode 42Join the Patreon (even at the free tier) to listen to the full episode! https://www.patreon.com/CRAMPEDBack in 2024, there were a ton of headlines about heavy metals being found…
- New Non-Invasive Tests for Endometriosis w Dr. Gail Busby · 45 min · Season 2 Episode 41Huge news for anyone with painful periods who's ever thought "I wonder if I have endometriosis??" - now you can either spit in a tube, or stick some electrode pads on your belly…
- FIBROIDS: Everything You Need To Know · 45 min · Season 2 Episode 40I don't want to freak you out, but between 70-90% of people with uteruses WILL get fibroids at some point in their menstruating years. So what do we need to know??Dr. Soyini…
- Unladylike: Where Does Perimenopause End and Capitalism Begin? · 56 min · Season 2Enjoy this episode of Cristen Conger's excellent podcast Unladylike!The perimenopause boom is old news, but where did it come from, and why does it make some ob-gyns wary?…
- The Impact of Endometriosis on Male Partners Study, w/ Comedian Jenny Zigrino · 18 min · Season 2 Episode 39Join the Patreon (even as a free member!) to listen to the full episode: https://www.patreon.com/CRAMPEDComedian Jenny Zigrino was posting so many hilarious videos about endo…
- The HER Agenda: Three Bills About Period Pain, w/ Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari · 36 min · Season 2 Episode 38Representative Yassamin Ansari has passed out from cramps in a New York bodega and in a hair salon with foils in her hair. She KNOWS period pain. She is also the Arizona…
- What If My Healthiest Self Isn't My Thinnest Self? · 46 min · Season 2 Episode 38About three months after her endo excision surgery, Kate noticed something unexpected lurking underneath all her ideas about her health: a subconscious belief that once her…
- Melasma, Drugs That Delay Menopause, and Girl Gone Wild with Courtney Kocak · 45 min · Season 2 Episode 37Writer, podcaster, and comedian Courtney Kocak talks about her period pain history, her Hashimoto's diagnosis, and the longevity drug she's currently taking to try to delay…
- Forgetting Everything I've Learned: Acupuncture, Fertility, and the Sunk Cost Fallacy · 11 min · Season 2 Episode 36PATREON-ONLY EPISODE TEASERJoin the CRAMPED Patreon to listen to the full episode: https://patreon.com/crampedI've spent spent years learning to advocate for myself, trust my…
- The Pain Scale Is Useless and Everybody Knows It · 44 min · Season 2 Episode 35Scale of one to ten, how much does it hurt? If you have ever sat in an ER thinking "eleven" and said "seven," Golda Arthur of the Overlooked podcast understands completely. She…
