In Hysterics

This week, in our season finale (!!!), Dr Suba talks with Miss Christine Ekechi. Christine is a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, specialising in early pregnancy and acute gynaecology. She wears many hats and one of them is as co-chair of the race equality task force for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

Christine tells us about what brought her to a career in O+G and the winding path she took to becoming a consultant. We talk about the work being done through the race equality task force, the important of rebuilding trust as clinicians with patient groups that have many reasons to be mistrustful of healthcare spaces and discuss how we break down barriers to help everyone better navigate their health journeys.

In our short we give you the inside scoop of how to put your best foot forward in healthcare spaces.

Sharpen your pencils and open those notebooks, class is in session y’all!

This week Dr Suba talks with Dr Tina Mistry, a psychologist with an interest in trauma-informed care and maternal mental health. She uses her platform to share her knowledge and bring diversity to the Eurocentric healthcare system.

We expand the conversation past perinatal mental health and explore what factors affect women’s mental health and how we can look after it.

In our short, we learn about hysteria – the ‘uniquely female madness’.

Now, where’s that magic wand …

This week Dr Suba talks with Gabby Edlin. Gabby is a menstrual equity activist and founder of Bloody Good Periods – a charity providing period products to whoever needs it. Especially in current times, period poverty is becoming increasingly common and BGP are a lifeline to many.

Gabby shares her story behind setting up BGP and we get into cultural period taboos, how to overcome them and find out about the great educational work that BGP are doing.

In our short we do a round-up of the latest period news from tampon tax to period poverty solutions around the world.

Period-normativity please!

This week Dr Suba talks with Emma Brockwell. Emma is a physio who after her own personal experiences with pelvic floor issues dived into the world of pelvic floor health. She is now a pelvic health physio with a specialist interest in helping those returning to running and exercise post-partum and uses her platform, @physiomumUK, to educate on pelvic floor health.

She tells us about her own journey towards pelvic floor health, teaches us how to 1) avoid constipation, which is KEY, and 2) how to actually do pelvic floor exercises. Along the way we chat about how common incontinence and prolapse is, explore the stigma around it and challenge the idea that there’s nothing to be done about leaks and bulges.

In our short, we get stuck into the pelvic mesh scandal, ask why it took so long for women to be listened to and break down the recent long-awaited ‘First Do No Harm’ report by Baroness Cumberlege.

Do it with me y’all - SQUEEZE, HOLD AND COUNT TO TEN!

This week Dr Suba talks with Sarah Sharp. Sarah is a chronic illness blogger with a passion for honesty, education and inclusivity. She fights to make the menstrual health community a more open and inclusive place for everyone who needs it through her platform @endo_the_world.

She takes us through her journey with endo, from first realizing that something wasn’t right all the way up to her post-laparoscopy appointment, which was literally on the day we recorded. We learn about how to advocate for yourself, why education is everything and how important community is along the way.

In our short we trash the idea that period pain is something you just have to get on with and find out how women have led the charge with transforming access to information, built support networks and challenged HCPs to do better around chronic pelvic pain.

To be in so much pain that you can’t function is never normal.

This week Dr Suba talks with Illy Morrison. She's a midwife and a mother – she’s built a great community through @mixing.up.motherhood where all things birth, parenting and relationships are addressed. She’s doing amazing work on advocacy in birth spaces, helping mothers on their journeys of healing from birth trauma and on gaining control in their birth experience.

Illy shares her birth experience with us: the highs, the lows and how bias was interwoven into it all. Through her story we learn about what contributes to negative and positive birth experiences, the importance of education and being informed and what birth trauma looks like + what to do about it.

In our short we learn about the MBRRACE-UK report that found that Black women were 5X more likely to die in and around pregnancy and get the latest on what’s being done about it.

PSA: protect Black women!

This week Dr Suba talks with Valentina Milanova, founder of Daye. Daye is a company looking to raise the standards in gynae health. Valentina tells us about her personal story behind launching Daye, how they are revolutionizing the humble tampon and what else they’ve got in store.

We learn about tampon standards (don’t blink, you’ll miss them), taking the tampon beyond being a menstrual product and why we need femtech!

In our short we hear about the Rely tampon scandal from the 1980s, dish up the facts on toxic shock syndrome - leaving your tampon in for too long is only half the story - and ask what's changed in tampon manufacturing since then.

We deserve so much better!

This week Dr. Suba talks with Dr. Anita Mitra, gynaecologist, author and vaginal microbiome expert. She usually traverses the interwebs fighting misinformation about women’s health through her platform @gynaegeek and her book The Gynae Geek but today, she graces us with her presence and knowledge.

We learn about the vaginal microbiome, how it looks after our vaginas and how we can look after it. She breaks down vaginal discharge and decimates the feminine hygiene history - at laaast!

In our short we find out what pop culture has to do with your vagina and how to separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to cultural influences on vaginal health.

Roll up, roll up - its vagina time!

This week Dr Suba talks with Imogen Pinnell, Health Information Manager from Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust, on cervical cancer, smears and HPV. We explore why the up-take rates of smears are at an all-time low and hear about the hope on the horizon for changes to the smear test. In our short, we learn about the stigma around gynae cancers and how shame and silence is literally killing us. Can we cancel that asap please?

This week Dr Suba talks with Dr Jessica Zucker, pregnancy loss and bereavement psychologist and creator of the #ihadamiscarriage campaign, on miscarriage, the culture of silence around it and the stigma of grief. She shares her powerful personal story and we explore what shapes women’s experiences of miscarriage and how to support them through it. In our short we learn about the cross-cultural experiences of miscarriage and how stigma around miscarriage shows up in different cultures around the world. Grief is so heavy and shouldn’t be shouldered alone.

Are you ready? In Hysterics, your soon-to-be fave Women’s Health podcast is dropping soon. We’re crushing taboos and excavating truths on how our health is influenced by history, politics and culture. I’m your host, Dr Suba, and we are powered by Daye. Join me weekly as I talk with a guest and hear lived experiences, the latest research and answer your burning questions!

Our first episodes will be released on Wednesday the 14th October so save the date and spread the word!