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In this week's podcast, I have the privilege of speaking to the wonderful Kristy Curry of @flutterhealth Flutter Health is a mobile endometriosis symptom tracking app that lets you track your period and journal your endometriosis symptoms, to better manage the disease. This is far from your everyday period tracking app with fixed settings that frustrate you and don't match your experience of menstruation (what’s with only being able to choose one PMS symptom?!). If your period lasts weeks on end, you can put that in. If you have a flare up that includes every endometriosis symptom under the sun, you can put them all in. You can even track your endometriosis symptoms or unusual period behaviours, download the past few months as a PDF, and take them to your doctor so you can get better treatment, or even a diagnosis. I chat to Kristy about how her experience of endometriosis and period tracker apps led her to start Flutter Health with her husband. We discuss how tracking your endometriosis symptoms can not only enable you get more accurate treatment, but can help you understand what's working for you in terms of pain and symptom management. We also talk about the 'endometriosis diet' and how that’s helped her manage her endometriosis over the past few years, and how finding a community can make a huge difference to living with endometriosis. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Head to the link in my bio to listen or download directly on iTunes or any podcast app. ✨
Friends... I would love some feedback and advice. For the past few months, I have been looking for a very special venue... A venue to host my first ever annual Your EndoLife, a day event full of talks and workshops all about living and thriving with endometriosis. But I am having problems hunting alone, places are either too expensive, don’t have disability access or are too small/big. My ideal would be a venue that has a warm and welcoming vibe, holds 50 people, has disability access and is affordable bearing in mind I’ll be paying for this upfront. I have seen some gorgeous venues but I’d love your input before I move forward. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ So, my questions are - Do you know of any venues in London that sound like I’ve described? Could you comment or DM me if you’d like to come and need disability access? Would you be happy for me to live stream if I cannot find a venue with adequate disability access within my budget (not ideal but trying to be innovative) OR would you be happy with me making this solely an online even for the first one in order to make it accessible for everyone? ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Please comment below! Any feedback would be gratefully appreciated and welcomed! 😘🙏❤️
🌊 My journey to health with endometriosis has been a long one. And last week, a huge change has finally come through - we found our new home in Margate, by the sea! This came about because after many years of ignoring my body and soul, I really couldn't ignore the signs any longer. I was unhappy and unhealthy in London, and so I began asking myself what would feel better. I craved to be living a slower pace of life, away from the city bustle. It gave me anxiety, stress and wore me out. We've been looking for a very long time, so this wasn't a sudden change, but now it's upon us, I can feel the waves of relief washing over me and I know it's going to make a big difference to my health. From July 28th, I’m going to be a 🧜‍♀️ You don't have to move to feel a benefit, I've been making small changes for years that have added up to me feeling better than I have for a very long time. Ask yourself, each day, what do I need? What will make me feel better? Follow that voice. ✨
Female Hormone Health and Endometriosis with @katemagic ✨ Episode 22 of This EndoLife Podcast is out today with the Founder and Creative Director of @wearerawliving , Kate is a well known raw vegan foodie here in the UK, having written the UK’s first raw recipe book back in 2002 and the world’s first raw superfood book, ‘Raw Magic’. I invited Kate onto the podcast to talk about her latest book, ‘The Empowered Woman’, which is all about female hormones, women’s empowerment and working with our body to support our hormones in order to feel our best. We explore the wide range of hormones in our bodies, how they work together and how they support us in our lives, we also delve into the difference between male and female hormone systems and how we can nurture these to live a life that empowers us, and how to treat hormone imbalances and the symptoms of endometriosis. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Since interviewing Kate several weeks ago, I’ve been on my own journey to fully understand my hormones. Kate’s wisdom and knowledge on the subject is fascinating, and answered so many questions I had about my health, that I’m already experiencing the benefits of making the changes she suggests in the interview. I hope this interview empowers and supports you on your own journey! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Listen now by following the link in my bio, or download on iTunes, Stitcher or any podcast app. Let me know what you think in the comments. ✨
For the majority of my life, I've found myself taken by surprise by period. My menstrual cycle had always been a bit of a mystery that I had no interest or care in uncovering or understanding. As far as I was concerned growing up, I was looking forward to the day it stopped and I tried to think about it as little as possible. That's why at 30, I am only just beginning to appreciate the power of the menstrual cycle and how its flow offers so much wisdom about my body and actually guides me towards living better. So, I’ve recently just completed my brief series on phases of our inner seasons, and how to work with each stage of your menstrual cycle to help you live with endometriosis with more ease. And today, I'm starting with the phase that most people with endometriosis battle with - menstruation, our inner winter. You can read the full column over on my site, link in bio. 🌕🌗🌑🌓
Recently I’ve been doing some work with my old colleagues @endometriosis.uk, to get menstrual wellbeing taught in schools. Today we launched the @endometriosis.uk #whatiwishilearned campaign and I also joined them on BBC2 this morning alongside several other incredible women to discuss how severely menstrual health can impact lives. Reflecting on our discussion this morning, here’s my #whatiwishilearned 💛 When I was at school, I wish I had learnt the importance of knowing, understanding and appreciating the menstrual cycle. I wish I had learnt that I could work with my body and not against it. I wish I had learnt about endometriosis and the many ways it could and would affect my life; not just the pain, but the fatigue, the depression, the brain fog, the anxiety, the hormonal imbalances... the list goes on. If I had learnt these things, I could have finished studying, I could have kept my business, I could have stayed in a charity I loved to work for. I could have spent years loving myself back to health through working with and understanding my body, rather than accusing it of being weak and hating my reproductive organs and hormones. I could have prevented all those years of thinking I was inadequate and inferior to countless colleagues who seemed so alert and on the ball in comparison to my slow, foggy mind. And quite honestly (*trigger alert*) I could have walked across that bridge each day to work feeling happy to be alive, instead of wanting to jump from it. BUT despite all this - I want to state it’s not hopeless, and I AM happy now and I AM well. But I wish it hadn’t taken all that suffering to get there. 💛 This is #whatiwishilearned when I was in school. Help us change the story for generations to come by asking the government to add Menstrual Wellbeing to the Relationships and Sex Education curriculum. Please sign @endometriosis.uk petition here: https://www.change.org/p/ngibb-menstrualhealth and spread the word. I now ask you all - what do you wish you had learnt in school and how could it have changed your experience of menstruation and menstrual conditions? Make sure you tag a friend and ask them, together we can do this!
I have news... I wish I could say it’s that we’ve found our flat in Margate, but the search is still on with that one! 🌊 But the news I have is just as exciting. I’ve been wanting to study for four years now. I've been torn between nutrtion and coaching and even mindfulness; I wanted to enhance my skills in coaching and mentoring so I could better support others with endometriosis. But the place I was at health wise meant I didn't have the energy or the brain strength to take these on, plus, because I've significantly changed my work life situation in the past four years, I wasn’t in the financial situation to start studying either. I'm now in a stage where I feel really good, better than I’ve felt in years and not only feel I can take on an education, but I’m yearning to. I recently came upon The Integrative Women's Health Institute, which offered a Women's Health Coach certification based upon functional nutrition and a holistic approach - with the option to specialise in women's pelvic pain and hormones! Last week I applied for a scholarship - and got it! 🙌 I am just planning my year of study now and getting introduced to the course, it’s a strange, scary and wonderful feeling, which at one stage seemed completely out of reach. I am deeply grateful that I am finally at the stage in my life and health where I can take this on. Despite endometriosis putting me through my own personal type of hell many times throughout my life and especially in the past 4-5 years, the journey it has taken me on in terms of connection, compassion, education and advocacy has been invaluable. I wouldn’t change any of it because it’s all led me to this point. 💛 Dreams can come true, even with endo. ☁️ Oh and p.s. if you’re about tomorrow at 9am, I’ll be on BBC News talking about my experience with endometriosis in the workplace! Eek. Freaking out just a tad.
This EndoLife Podcast Episode 21 with @cori5mith is here! In this episode I’m talking to Cori about his experience of endometriosis as a trans man and how we can make the endometriosis community a safer, more supportive place for transgender and non-binary people and others who do not identify as cisfemale with endometriosis. Cori has endometriosis and his story of how he was treated as a women vs how he was treated as a trans man is shocking, but so important to talk about and raise awareness of. Cori is doing incredible and courageous work for our community. It was an absolute honour to speak with him, and I really hope you find it an enlightening episode! 💛 Head to my bio to listen or go directly to your podcast app.
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