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PODCAST

CRAMPED

Kate Helen Downey

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.

health & fitness documentary

All Episodes

00:31:39

PCOS is now PMOS: Why Did It Take 20 Years of Debate...

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2026/10/06

You 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 exactly? Why did the name need to be changed? And why did it take 20 years to actually make it happen? Dr. Helena Teede, the Director of the Monash Centre for Health Research Implementation in Australia, has been leading this effort. She gives us the lowdown on why PCOS was a medically inaccurate name, how the name of a condition

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00:18:41

Endo Excision Surgeon Dr. Iris Orbuch: Why She...

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2026/09/29

Join 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 interview with leading endo excision surgeon Dr. Iris Kerin Orbuch, we get a transparent look into the finances behind a surgical practice, and what's causing insurance companies to undervalue an extremely complicated and skilled surgery. Dr. Orbuch also opens up about why she went 16 years with endometriosis symptoms and

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00:45:37

Your Uterus Sends a Monthly Report. Someone's Finally...

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2026/09/22

I 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 endometriosis from both ends: a non-invasive diagnostic using a tampon, and the hunt for new drug targets to help treat it. We also talk about rats chewing through menstrual cups, the "menstrual defense" for murder, and how our periods are the key to understanding immune system dysfunction. She blew my mind with menstrual

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00:34:46

The GYRL Lab is Doing The Viagra For Cramps Follow-Up...

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2026/09/15

In 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 denied. 13 years later, our friends at the GYRL lab in Evanston, IL are picking up where Penn State left off.Dr. Kevin Hellman (from Season 1) returns to answer all my questions, like why do you think Sildenafil Citrate (Viagra) might work to reduce period pain? How is your study going to find answers? And why did it take 13

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00:47:47

The Personal Finances of Period Pain w Tori Dunlap

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2026/09/08

One 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 doctors and procedures that aren't covered by insurance, the cost gets overwhelming real quick! And as a little bit of a personal finance nerd, I started to notice...none of the big personal finance advice people are talking about how to handle medical expenses for conditions that cause severe period pain. So I called up Tori

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00:10:38

Are There Heavy Metals in Our Tampons, and Is That...OK?

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2026/08/27

Join 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 in tampons. So...what happened with that? ARE there heavy metals in our tampons? And is that...bad for us? Where'd we land with that? I take you on a ride down a research rabbit hole about the 2024 UC Berkeley study that kicked this all off, the FDA's follow-up study, and the computational model that gives us as much of an

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00:45:10

New Non-Invasive Tests for Endometriosis w Dr. Gail...

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2026/08/18

Huge 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, and know within a few minutes or days, with a high degree of certainty, if you do in fact have endometriosis!! If you live in the UK, Canada, or some countries in Europe, that is. Not in the US...yet. So what are these tests? How accurate are they? When will we get them in the US? Dr. Gail Busby, a UK gynecologist who

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00:44:58

FIBROIDS: Everything You Need To Know

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2026/08/11

I 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 Hawkins, gynecologist, minimally invasive surgeon, and founder of the Fibroid and Pelvic Wellness Center of Georgia, answers my technical questions. Tanika Gray Valbrun, founder of The White Dress Project and award-winning journalist, goes deep on community, education, and how we can advocate for ourselves and each other.They've

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00:56:17

Unladylike: Where Does Perimenopause End and...

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2026/08/04

Enjoy 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? Cristen investigates what we do – and don’t – know about perimenopause and what to expect when you’re expecting The Change(s). And as an industry “growth opportunity” at the intersection of beauty, aging and healthcare (usually in that order), how do we tell the difference between our own perimenopause needs and what’s being sold

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00:17:30

The Impact of Endometriosis on Male Partners Study,...

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2026/07/28

Join 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 studies on Instagram that I invited her over to my house to do a deep dive on 2017's "A qualitative study of the impact of endometriosis on male partners". As you can imagine, we get heated.Plus we get deep into Jenny's experience with endo, a frank conversation about pain with sex, her recent autoimmune diagnosis, and the

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00:35:48

The HER Agenda: Three Bills About Period Pain, w/...

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2026/07/21

Representative 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 congresswoman who just introduced the HER Agenda to Congress, a package of bills proposing 12 days of paid reproductive health leave, better pain management for gynecological procedures, and more research into PMDD. Kate talks to her about her pain meds, how the HER Agenda came together, and the single most useful thing a cramper

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00:46:05

What If My Healthiest Self Isn't My Thinnest Self?

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2026/07/14

About 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 period pain was fixed, she would automatically be thinner. Where did that thought come from? How did it get so deep in her head without her even knowing it was there? Kate brings on two experts to help untangle it: medical anthropologist and UC Santa Cruz professor Nancy N. Chen, who traces how cultural ideas about health and

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00:45:17

Melasma, Drugs That Delay Menopause, and Girl Gone...

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2026/07/07

Writer, 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 menopause and preserve her ovarian reserve. They also get into why perimenopause is basically puberty in reverse, what happens inside your body when an ovarian cyst ruptures in a Taco Bell, and why birth control gave them both a skin discoloration called melasma.Join the CRAMPED Patreon: https://patreon.com/crampedCRAMPED

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00:11:25

Forgetting Everything I've Learned: Acupuncture,...

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2026/06/30

PATREON-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 body, and walk out of rooms where I'm not being listened to. So why did I stick with a provider who was dismissing my concerns, prescribing unnecessary medications, and wasting my time and my money?This is the full story of a fertility acupuncture practice that wasn't right for me from day one, the sunk cost fallacy that kept

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00:43:33

The Pain Scale Is Useless and Everybody Knows It

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2026/06/23

Scale 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 did the same thing during a thunderclap headache episode, and has been thinking about it ever since.Kate and Golda dissect the broken language of pain: the useless pain scale, the research showing doctors are trained to hear men's pain as physical and women's pain as emotional, and how even Virginia Woolf in 1926 complained

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00:47:55

The Comorbidity Queen: EDS, POTS, Endo, Fibroids,...

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2026/06/16

Content warning: this episode includes a brief discussion of suicide attempts, please listen with care. Melissa, known on TikTok as the Comorbidity Queen, has endometriosis, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, pelvic congestive syndrome, May-Thurner syndrome, Nutcracker syndrome, thoracic outlet syndrome, POTS, MCAS, Lyme disease, chronic anemia, and a first rib that doctors want to remove. In this episode she tells us everything: the nine-hour emergency surgery at 17, the $65,000 in medical debt, the severe

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00:20:08

The Endo Attractiveness Study: Are You F**king...

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2026/06/09

PATREON-ONLY EPISODE TEASERJoin the CRAMPED Patreon to listen to the full episode: https://patreon.com/crampedDid we need a data science professor to tell us why a study titled "Attractiveness of women with rectovaginal endometriosis: a case-control study" is garbage? No, but it's more fun to tear this study to shreds with a professional. This is a real study: university funded, ethics board-approved, peer reviewed, and published in a real medical journal in 2013. How did this study even get

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00:38:15

Can Capitalism Fix What the Healthcare System Broke?...

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2026/06/02

There's a very obvious gap in the healthcare market: millions of people in serious pain every month, and almost no companies trying to solve it. In this episode, Kate talks to Sushma Ravindran, founder of Ask Nomi, an app in beta testing that aims to help people with endometriosis track symptoms, find the right care, and figure out what actually works for their body. Sushma spent 18 years undiagnosed, paid $20,000 out of pocket to finally get answers, and then quit her job to build a solution. They

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00:28:44

What Does Tinnitus Have To Do With Your Hormones? An...

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2026/05/27

Your ears are pretty far away from your uterus, BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN THEY'RE NOT LISTENING. Dr. Natalie Crossland, an audiologist who specializes in tinnitus management (and also has endometriosis), explains the surprising ways that hormones, hearing, and the nervous system are all in conversation with each other. Like why estrogen levels affect your ability to hear in background noise, why tinnitus might pop up during hormonal shifts, and what you can actually do about it besides being told to

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00:52:17

Using AI To Help Get To A Diagnosis

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2026/05/12

Pelvic floor physical therapist Caroline Gamwell experienced a strange constellation of symptoms from the time she was 4. After decades of misdiagnoses, unnecessary surgery, and overmedication, she brought her search to an AI chatbot. Is it possible to use AI well in this situation? How do you protect yourself from potential AI hallucinations? Can someone with no medical background use AI to help get to a diagnosis? The New York Times article:

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