CRAMPED
Episodes
Are Crampers Better Off in 2025?
11 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In our last episode of 2025, Kate looks back on 2025 and attempts to answer the question "Are crampers better off in 2025?" We take a tour through SUP...
Using Period Blood to Diagnose Disease - Subscriber only episode teaser
04 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
You know how many diseases are diagnosed or monitored by drawing blood from a vein in your arm and running tests on it? Would those tests still work i...
Recurring UTIs and the Microbiome
21 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Kate brings on a friend for a Case Study episode all about recurring UTIs and the vaginal microbiome. They take a microbiome test and talk to a health...
What Is Patient Advocacy and How Do I Do It? with Tight Lipped
30 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Everybody's always telling us patient advocacy is the way to solve systemic issues in women's healthcare - ok so what exactly IS patient advocacy? Wha...
How To Talk About Your Period Pain: Subscriber-only Episode Teaser
16 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Why does it feel so hard to talk about our period pain? Who benefits when we stay quiet? How do we build a world where information about period pain t...
Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy for Period Pain with Dr. Sara Reardon
04 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Kate talks to Dr. Sara Reardon, aka The Vagina Whisperer - a board-certified pelvic floor physical therapist and author of the new book Floored, a wom...
Surgery for Period Pain (Part 2)
07 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Kate is back from surgery! In Part 2 of this 2 part episode, Kate walks through the day of the surgery, from arriving at the hospital to the 4 weeks o...
Surgery For Period Pain (Part 1)
29 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Kate is back from surgery! In Part 1 of a 2 part series, she goes step by step through the imaging result that gave her the information that lead her ...
Going Off Hormonal Birth Control
22 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this Case Study episode, Kate brings on Deanna Hart-Nokes, who just went off hormonal birth control for the second time in 20 years, and has been e...
Fibroids and The White Dress Project
15 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Fibroids are a super common cause of severe period pain - up to 80% of people with a uterus will get fibroids at some point! So...why don't we know wh...
Cycle Tracking: Subscriber-only Episode Teaser
11 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Kate talks to Laura Federico and Morgan Miller, authors of The Cycle Book, all about cycle tracking. What is it? How do I do it? Am I already doing it...
Endo's Last Stand - Surgery & Spitefulness
03 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Kate is getting endometriosis excision surgery today! She shares some details, and a story of her (hopefully last) experience with "death cramps". See...
Ovarian Cysts
26 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Kate talks to her friend Taylor Hallam, who has struggled with ovulation pain and ovarian cyst ruptures since getting off 19 straight years of hormona...
MTHFR Gene Mutations, Normal Lab Results, and Changing Pain - Your Qs!
18 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Kate answers some questions that listeners asked her to research for them, including: What do I do when my doctor says my lab results are "normal"? Do...
CRAMPED is back: Season 1.5
11 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
CRAMPED is back with new episodes - but we need your help! Subscribe to our Patreon to make our work possible at www.patreon.com/crampedSee Privacy Po...
Why Do We Even Get Periods?
08 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In season 1's final episode, Kate calls up biological anthropologist Kate Clancy to find out why we're even in this pain to begin with. Then Kate thro...
Why Doesn't Media Talk About Period Pain?
01 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
If 51% of the population has a uterus, and 91% of menstruating people experience period pain, why do we literally never hear about it in the media we ...
What Happened to Feminism and Body Literacy?
25 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Kate talks to her mom about joining the Boston Women's Health Movement in the 1970s. Why was body literacy such a big part of feminism in the 70s, but...
Do I Have Medical Trauma?
18 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Kate checks in with comedian and recent hysterectomy patient Max Gross, as well as therapist Suzanne Garrison to figure out - what is medical trauma, ...
I Got a Diagnosis. Now What?
11 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Kate sees a specialist and finally gets a diagnosis for the condition causing her severe period pain. But instead of relief and a clear treatment plan...
How Do I Balance My Hormones?
04 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Kate gets sucked down a rabbit hole of "hormone balancing" content on TikTok, and wonders...this whole time, have her cramps just been due to a hormon...
Who’s Researching New Treatments for Period Pain?
25 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Kate takes a field trip to Evanston, Illinois to visit the Gynecology Research Laboratory, where a team of doctors and researchers are doing groundbre...
How Many People Have Severe Period Pain?
18 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It seems like a simple question, right? How many other people out there are experiencing "death cramps"? It turns out...not so much. Kate brings on he...
The ER: Why Isn't Period Pain Treated Like Other Kinds of Pain?
11 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When you're in severe pain and can't figure out how to make it go away, you might seek help at an ER or Urgent Care. But if you're experiencing severe...
Death Cramps: Is This Normal?
04 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Just how bad are Kate's "really bad cramps"? And what could be causing them? In the first of ten episodes, host Kate Helen Downey describes what hap...
A Preview of Period Pain Answers
21 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A sneak peek at what's to come in the 10 episodes of CRAMPED - first episode dropping Tuesday February 4th, with new episodes weekly for 10 weeks. S...
Introducing Cramped
04 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
One nerd’s quest to find out why we know next to nothing about period pain. Tired of suffering from "death cramps" with no diagnosis for 20 years,...