LADYPARTS: taking a wide view on women's health

Do you know where your uterus is? If you periods are painful, it may be in the wrong place. Listen to learn why the position of the uterus matters, and how you can stay in alignment. Our guest is Megan Assaf, integrative massage therapist for women.

This episode is a conversation with Hanifa Nayo Washington and Thema Haida, women healers who recently opened a holistic healing center in the tradition of Healing Justice.

Two midwives from different backgrounds make cases for how better integration of midwifery into the US medical system could help lower the country's high rate of maternal mortality, cut down on unnecessary interventions, and make birth a more dignified, healthier experience for moms.

Ladyparts host Andrea Muraskin called Libby Hopton to get some clarity on the debate concerning the origin of Endometriosis.

March is endometriosis awareness month. But here’s the thing about these months: they tend to highlight something we should be paying more attention to all the time.

Guest Ariel Vegosen is a gender inclusivity trainer and sex educator who is proud to be kinky, queer, and genderblended. No matter your gender identity, Ariel says expanding your understanding of gender benefits everyone. Andrea and Ariel discuss life beyond the gender binary, femininity, polyamory, self-love, strap-on sex and more. Learn more about Ariel Vegosen’s work at shinediversity.com and genderillumination.com and polyexcellent.com.

This episode explores the mind-body connection in women from two very different angles. We hear Function Medicine doctor and OBGYN Jessica Wei on how stress, hormones and the gut affect mental health and mood. And later in the episode, psychoanalyst Jamieson Webster on how women diagnosed with hysteria changed the way we treat mental illness, and why that seemingly outdated diagnosis still matters today.

In this episode, we explore the concept of creating a special place in time and space for menstruation. Sometimes this happens by choice, as in the practice of “conscious menstruation,” and sometimes it’s enforced, as under cultural or religious taboos. What can we learn from taking a step back, turning away, in whatever small way, from society, from routine, and attuning to our internal cycle?

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) presents a completely different framework for understanding the body, and can be used on its own or in concert with conventional medicine. Guest Erik Harris is a holistic healing practitioner based in Connecticut. He holds a certificate in TCM from the Wu Healing Center in West Hartford, Connecticut, and he also has a bachelor's degree in psychology from Springfield College. Erik explains the TCM concepts of yin and yang, energy meridians and more. Plus: Chinese medicine approaches to infertility, painful periods and menopause symptoms.

To make informed decisions about our health, we have to break taboos against publicly discussing our basic bodily functions - and most perplexing symptoms. Ladyparts takes a wide view, attempting to bridge the divide between mainstream medicine and holistic healthcare, and consider all of our options. The reproductive disorder endometriosis affects one in ten women. It can cause debilitating periods, pelvic pain and infertility. Endometriosis is most often treated with birth control pills or surgery. But this summer, the FDA approved the first ever medication formulated specifically to treat this disease. Elagolix, or Orilissa, suppresses the estrogen that fuels endometriosis, without putting the body into a full-blown menopausal state, as older drugs did. Yet expert disagree on its efficacy. And with a price tag of $1000 a month, is Orilissa worth it?

To make informed decisions about our health, women have to break taboos against publicly discussing our basic bodily functions - and most perplexing symptoms. Ladyparts takes a wide view. We're attempting to ford the river dividing mainstream medicine and holistic healthcare, and consider all of our options.