In this episode of Down There Aware, Natalie Jeanson joins Amy to share her devastating 10-year journey of being dismissed by doctors despite meticulous self-documentation and persistent advocacy. Natalie opens up about dismissive allergic reactions to birth control, a traumatic IUD insertion, PCOS diagnosis, and the workplace discrimination that comes with invisible chronic pain. She talks about the healthcare system's refusal to listen even when she showed up with detailed symptom logs, why being told "it's just normal" destroyed her confidence, and how imposter syndrome almost kept her silent. A raw conversation about being forced to educate the system about your own body.

Key Components

• How medical gaslighting starts in adolescence: Natalie's symptoms from age 13—heavy periods, cyclical pain outside her period, pain during exercise—were normalized and dismissed as "just how it is," setting the stage for years of suffering in silence.
• Doctors don't listen even when patients do the work for them: Despite meticulously logging every symptom, meal, and activity for months and presenting this evidence to doctors, Natalie was given an IUD instead of answers.
• How Natalie's workplace experience reveals how employers—and the healthcare system—don't acknowledge what they can't see, forcing her to fight for basic accommodations like wearing comfortable pants instead of following restrictive dress codes.
• Overcoming imposter syndrome to speak her truth: Natalie grapples with self-doubt despite being articulate and knowledgeable about her own body, showing how invalidation for years creates a silence many women experience even when desperate to be heard.

"The healthcare system tries to put you in boxes before you get that diagnosis that you need because they need to rule things out. But that process of putting you in boxes for five years just to get a diagnosis means you're suffering for five years with chronic pain."

Connect with Natalie on Instagram:
@natalie.raae
@remmie.collective

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🤘 Podcast produced by Binge-Worthy Studio

For informational and entertainment purposes only — not medical advice. We're here to get loud, not to play doctor.

Welcome to The Down There Aware Podcast with Amy Milne. In our first episode, Amy opens up about her deeply personal journey through three decades of undiagnosed endometriosis. From speaking up as a rebellious teenager to battling medical gaslighting as a young woman, Amy takes you through the misdiagnoses, the surgeries, the medications, and the moment a female doctor finally believed her. She shares how her tenacity led her to motherhood despite the odds, why she eventually chose a hysterectomy, and why she's now launching the Down There Affair—a radical fundraising walk in underwear—to demand better for women's below-the-belt health care.

Key Components

• How early outspokenness became her superpower: Amy's refusal to be silenced as a teenager, though labeled "difficult," ultimately enabled her to advocate for herself when the medical system failed her.
• The power of one doctor who listened: When Dr. Vicki Davis believed Amy's story instead of dismissing it, everything changed—and led directly to her eventual path to motherhood.
• Why the "kids cures endo" myth is bullshit: Amy challenges the outdated narrative that pregnancy ends endometriosis, sharing her continued pain journey after becoming a mother.
• The Down There Affair as activism: Amy's new fundraising movement and why women's below-the-belt health receives only 7 cents per healthcare dollar while Viagra comes in chewable form.

"For us to demand more and better care, we must put our money where the memes are. We must raise our own money because of the dollars raised in health care today we see about seven cents on the dollar go towards our health concerns. How is there a chewable—not just swallowable but chewable—Viagra, but no cure for endo?"

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🤘 Podcast produced by Binge-Worthy Studio

For informational and entertainment purposes only — not medical advice. We're here to get loud, not to play doctor.

Here's the thing nobody wants to say out loud: For decades, women have been taught that our pain doesn't matter, that our bodies are too complicated, that we should suffer quietly and be grateful for whatever scraps of medical attention we get. I'm done with that. And if you're listening to this, so are you. 

Hi, I'm Amy Milne, and I know what it's like to be dismissed by doctors who didn't believe my pain was real. But here's the thing: I'm not special. This is happening to millions of women right now. Women being told their pain is in their heads. Women waiting years, sometimes a decade for a diagnosis, women whose careers, relationships and lives are being destroyed while the medical system shrugs and says, "mmm, that's just how periods are." 

That ends here. That ends now. 

Welcome to the Down There Aware podcast, where we're getting loud about women's below the belt health. Every week I dare to bare it all as I sit down in my undies with the people who are changing the game. Doctors and researchers sharing breakthrough insights, fitness coaches with practical strategies for women's health, advocates fighting for change, and real women sharing their stories. The struggles, the victories, the truth about what's really going on below the belt.

We're going to get real, and we're going to get uncomfortable because getting uncomfortable is where change happens. We'll laugh when it's appropriate, we'll rage when it's necessary, and we will never again accept the status quo. 

It's bold, it's honest, and it's the conversation women's health has been waiting for. Whether you're in the middle of your own health battle, supporting someone who is, or you're just ready to join a movement that's making women's health impossible to ignore, this is your space. 

This is the Down There Aware podcast. Show us you care: Subscribe and share. 

We're done with the whispers. It's time to get loud.

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🤘 Podcast produced by Binge-Worthy Studio

For informational and entertainment purposes only — not medical advice. We're here to get loud, not to play doctor.

Seanna Thomas, a holistic nutritionist and TV personality on Meal Prep Mondays (CP24), joins Amy to break down the nonsense about women's nutrition in perimenopause. Instead of promising perfection, Seanna teaches practical, moderation-based nutrition—protein, fiber, hydration—without the guilt. She talks about her journey from "buzzkill hockey snack mom" to building a business that fuels busy families, navigating perimenopause while raising three teenagers, and why going easy on yourself is the real game-changer. A refreshingly honest conversation about eating chicken legs AND french fries, supplements that actually matter (magnesium, calcium, omega-3), and why the 30-grams-of-protein-per-meal rule is actually doable without living on cottage cheese.

Key Components:

• The supplement and diet industry bombards us with contradictory advice. Seanna's philosophy is simple: start with one sustainable change, master it, then add another—don't do everything all at once.
• Protein, fiber, and hydration are the holy trinity: Aim for 100 grams of protein a day (roughly 30g per meal - but not necessarily from chicken legs.) Color on your plate = fiber. And drinking water actually matters more than you think.
• Food should be an adventure, not a prison: Processed meats, wine with charcuterie, french fries are all allowed. The goal is moderation and enjoyment, not perfection.
• Practical strategies beat motivation: Make dinner decisions by noon, prep a charcuterie lunch, put out a veggie tray when kids come home, use a whiteboard. Remove decision fatigue from the equation so you actually make good choices.

"Go easy on yourself. We are bombarded with what we should be doing, especially when it comes to what we eat. 'Eat more protein, eat more fiber, don't do cardio, but get 10,000 steps a day'—it can get really confusing. Make one change at a time."

Visit Seanna's website here

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🤘 Podcast produced by Binge-Worthy Studio

For informational and entertainment purposes only — not medical advice. We're here to get loud, not to play doctor.

In this episode of Down There Aware, Amy is joined by Yolanda, who shares her nine-year infertility battle—3 IVFs and 2 IUI's, and not a single pregnancy. No doctor ever told her that egg quality crashes at 35, so she delayed family planning for career and didn't start trying until 37. After three failed cycles at her first clinic, she switched to a second one that discovered she has three rare blood clotting mutations that prevented embryo implantation. She shares about daily blood work and ultrasounds while hiding it from her corporate job, receiving "you're not pregnant" calls at work, losing three 20-year friendships to grief, years of depression, and the complex joy and heartbreak of being a devoted stepmom to two sons while mourning the biological children she'll never have.

Key Components

• The clock was ticking, but no one told her: Yolanda wasn't told that egg quality drops sharply at 35. Had she known, she might have frozen eggs or made different choices—instead, she was given no information.
• Blood work and internal ultrasounds, hormone injections at home, a swollen uterus she couldn't hide, and the devastation of getting told "you're not pregnant" via phone call at work while in high-pressure corporate meetings.
• Her hidden blood clotting disorder: Yolanda discovered she has all three rare genetic mutations affecting blood clotting (Factor V Leiden, Prothrombin, MTHFR)—which affects just 0.04% of the population.
• How her infertility meant profound isolation: She lost three 20-year friendships because they couldn't handle her grief, spent years on depression medication and therapy, and couldn't tell anyone at work for fear of losing promotions.

"Going through infertility is extremely lonely because no one understands. I want to celebrate with you, but I can't come to your baby shower. I can't be around diaper games. It's not that we're selfish—it's trauma. It's a traumatic experience."

Connect with Yolanda at Full Circle Digital and Put The Kettle On

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🤘 Podcast produced by Binge-Worthy Studio

For informational and entertainment purposes only — not medical advice. We're here to get loud, not to play doctor.

In this episode, Amy is joined by Laura, a marketing executive in Toronto, who spent three decades managing a secret that controlled every decision she made. Starting with pre-cervical cancer surgery in her 20s, she had five surgeries in her 30s and 40s to remove polyps and fibroids—all while climbing the corporate ladder and dating as a single woman. She couldn't tell anyone at work for fear of losing promotions, relied on painkillers just to get through the day, and unconsciously kept relationships at arm's length because she wasn't sure she could give a partner biological children. Three years ago, at 47, she made a final decision: a hysterectomy. But not before six months of therapy asking the hard questions—not "can I have a baby at 48?" but "do I want one?" This raw conversation reveals the loneliness of making this choice alone, the shock of leaving the hospital with zero support, and why she decided to speak her truth so other women wouldn't have to suffer the way she did.

Key Components:

• Thirty years of invisible pain: Five surgeries, constant bleeding, unpredictable cycles, painkillers she lost track of—all while maintaining a successful career and the appearance of having it together.
• She unconsciously avoided commitment because she didn't know if she could have kids, and she didn't want to be the woman who couldn't deliver that dream. Every relationship decision was hinged on a health struggle she couldn't even name out loud.
• Making her final decision: Six months of therapy helped her walk through the real questions. Not medical ones—personal ones. By the time she knew her answer was no to motherhood, she made peace with it. But there was still grief, and there was no going back.
• When she posted about her hysterectomy eight weeks post-op, it opened a door. Women started DMing her and she became the support she never had for people who had no one else to talk to.

"I felt alone. I felt like I was the only one who had all of these challenges. Nobody knew the behind the scenes. Nobody knew the personal struggles and the journey."

👉 Click here to join the movement at downthereaware.org

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🤘 Podcast produced by Binge-Worthy Studio

For informational and entertainment purposes only — not medical advice. We're here to get loud, not to play doctor.

Wendy Petties is a native New Yorker, psychologist, and founder of Sexy Money—built on one radical belief: pleasure can save your life. In this episode with Amy, Wendy holds nothing back. After 11 years fighting for fertility, a hysterectomy at 40, bankruptcy, and harassment at work that left her unable to get out of bed, Wendy reconnected with what she'd known in her 20s about pleasure. Not just sex—the daily, intentional kind. She became a millionaire, learned to ask for plenty instead of just enough, and now she gives women permission to talk about what nobody talks about: sex, money, shame, and why a dry vagina is a health crisis. At 57, unapologetic and potty-mouthed, she's coming to Toronto for the Down There Affair.

Key Components

• Eleven years of procedures and the moment her doctor forgot she was a person: What happens when saving your fertility becomes the goal instead of saving yourself.
• From bankruptcy to millionaire in four years: How pleasure—not motivation, not willpower—became the foundation for rebuilding everything.
• The two-year gap that almost nobody survives: Painful sex after a hysterectomy, male doctors with no answers, and finally telling the truth.
• Why Wendy wears a clitoris necklace and gives away vibrators: What radical honesty actually does for the women around you.

"Pleasure can save our lives. It does fuel us. It does heal us. We have to base things on pleasure, especially women."

Visit Wendy's website here!
Follow Wendy on Instagram!

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🤘 Podcast produced by Binge-Worthy Studio

For informational and entertainment purposes only — not medical advice. We're here to get loud, not to play doctor.

In this episode, Amy is joined by Noa, a 23-year-old college student from Chicago living with PCOS. At 13, she and her identical twin sister gained 50 pounds overnight with no change to diet or exercise. After a year and a half of being dismissed by general practitioners—told to just exercise and eat better—a gynecologist finally put the pieces together. It turns out PCOS runs in her family. Her twin, older sister, and mom all have it too. Now at 23, Noa is an expert in her own treatment, piecing together knowledge from TikTok, Mayo Clinic and years of trial-and-error with medications, and laser hair removal. She describes navigating her PCOS alongside depression, ADHD, and shares a story about a burst ovarian cyst that happened while traveling abroad.

Key Components

• How four women in one family all have PCOS and didn't know it: The moment Noa realized that the overnight weight gain, hair loss, and irregular periods weren't just about her.
• When doctors dismiss you for a year and a half — the frustration of being told to diet and exercise when something medical is actually breaking down in your body.
• A burst cyst in Barcelona that taught her more than any doctor did, and how she didn't find out what actually happened to her until months later when she read about it in a romance novel.
• How Noa built her own treatment plan from the internet. She used male Rogaine, a laser device, birth control pills, and self-education to keep herself functioning because doctors didn't have answers for her.

"First, figure out what your biggest problems are with PCOS. Book an appointment with a gynecologist who specializes in women's health. Don't take the answer of 'just work out and diet'. It's a lot more than that."

👉 Click here to join the movement at downthereaware.org

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🤘 Podcast produced by Binge-Worthy Studio

For informational and entertainment purposes only — not medical advice. We're here to get loud, not to play doctor.

Jill Mueller is a pelvic floor physiotherapist from Hamilton, Ontario, and she has endometriosis. She had surgery to treat it... and it didn't work. Instead of accepting that, she went looking for answers and discovered something that changed everything about how she treats women with endo: the nervous system. Now she's not only treating patients but has co-founded an interdisciplinary program, Endometriosis360, bringing together specialists who actually talk to each other. In this episode, Jill will challenge everything you think you know about pain, tells you what doctors don't tell us, and explains why the missing piece in women's healthcare might not be what you expect.

Key Components:

• Why your pain doesn't always match what doctors find, and what Jill learned when her surgery changed nothing.
• What medical schools aren't teaching doctors about chronic pain
• What happens when you have an endometriosis specialist, a pelvic physio, a psychologist, and a dietitian actually talking to each other and you stop working in silos
• The conversation about your nervous system that you've probably never had, and why it matters that you have it now.

"96% of medical schools have zero compulsory education in pain in North America for doctors. So they're not great at treating chronic symptoms and persistent pain."

👉 Connect with Jill on Instagram — @endotogether, @endometriosis360, @oakvillephysio
👉 Check out the Endometriosis360 program — opening internationally to people who speak and understand English
👉 Visit the Healthy Balance Physiotherapy And Wellness clinic in Oakville, Ontario

👉 Click here to join the movement at downthereaware.org

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🤘 Podcast produced by Binge-Worthy Studio

For informational and entertainment purposes only — not medical advice. We're here to get loud, not to play doctor.

In this episode, Amy is joined by Marie Berry, the founder of YVO — a women's wellness brand focused on bone health. It all started with an osteopenia diagnosis; Marie was active, athletic, doing triathlons and playing tennis, but a scan revealed something that didn't add up: her bone density was way lower than it should be for her age. So, she started walking with a weighted vest to build bone strength and the trend exploded. Women were asking which vest to use, and Marie realized none of them were designed for female bodies. So she built one herself—and in the process, accidentally created a thriving community of 600+ women walking weekly across the US. Join us for this episode where Marie talks about bone health, what the fitness industry got wrong about women's bodies, and how her indigenous roots shaped the brand she's building.

Key Components:

• The osteopenia diagnosis that didn't make sense, and how a very active woman discovered something was wrong and what that led her to research.
• Existing weighted vests weren't designed for women: From spine curvature to where the weight sits to actually being washable, Marie figured out what was missing.
• A thirty day challenge with friends that became 600+ women walking together.
• Reconnecting with her Bolivian roots and what that has to do with the brand: The indigenous identity that shaped everything—from the name to the warrior energy woven into the design.

"Find out who you are and do it on purpose. And it's easy to listen to it, but it's hard to internalize, and I think I understand it now."

Connect with Marie on Instagram
Check out YVO and join The Warrior Tribe

👉 Click here to join the movement at downthereaware.org

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🤘 Podcast produced by Binge-Worthy Studio

For informational and entertainment purposes only — not medical advice. We're here to get loud, not to play doctor.

Rashidah is a registered nurse, certified nurse midwife, lactation consultant, and doula from Chicago with 30 years in women's health. She spent decades in labor and delivery, taught nursing students for 20 years, and recently retired to do what she's always wanted—be a postpartum doula and lactation consultant. But Rashidah also has her own story. She spent years managing heavy periods and fibroids, refusing surgery until Covid made the decision for her. In this episode, she talks about the village we need to build around postpartum moms, why "bouncing back" is a myth, and why women need to stop keeping their health a secret.

Key Components:

• A C-section is major surgery that we treat like it's nothing, and what that actually means for your body in the weeks after.
• The postpartum village is not optional—it's essential. Asking for help isn't weakness, and you need people showing up before you fall apart.
• How menopause can show up as a hot wave, not a flash: even surprising someone who's spent 30 years in women's health.
• The advice that seems obvious but apparently still needs saying: From douching to taking up space, what women actually need to hear.

"A C-section is a major surgery, and we act like it isn't because we do so many of them"

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🤘 Podcast produced by Binge-Worthy Studio

For informational and entertainment purposes only — not medical advice. We're here to get loud, not to play doctor.

Amy is joined today by Melanie Sutherland — the CEO and founder of Body Co, a multidisciplinary clinic in Toronto. She is also a recognized pelvic health & perinatal physiotherapist. Melanie started her clinic 12 years ago because she got tired of being shuttled between different practitioners who never talked to each other. She never planned to work in pelvic health — until a humbling moment in training made her realize her own pelvic floor wasn't what she thought it was. Now she watches women suffer from untreated perimenopause and pelvic floor symptoms because they don't know the care exists, that it's covered by benefits, or what to expect. In this episode, Melanie talks about the gap between what women need and what the system offers, why kegels aren't always the answer, and what actually happens in an appointment.

Key Components

• How she accidentally became a pelvic health expert: Until she realized her own pelvic floor wasn't what she thought.
• The gap between Canada and other countries: Why France gets 12 paid appointments after birth and we get silence.
• Why half the women doing kegels are making their problems worse: Nobody checks under the hood first.
• What actually happens in a pelvic health appointment: It's not what you think.
• Why saying things are "common" in pelvic health actually gives women a permission slip to not investigate further.

"When you look to European cultures, like France, when you have a baby, you get 12 paid pelvic health appointments afterwards. But we're so prudish here in Canada."

Check out Body Co. Toronto
Connect with Melanie on Instagram

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🤘 Podcast produced by Binge-Worthy Studio

For informational and entertainment purposes only — not medical advice. We're here to get loud, not to play doctor.

Alicia Tone is a PhD in ovarian cancer biology, the Director of Research at Ovarian Cancer Canada, and the founder of Run for Her—a trail running event that's raised over $120,000 since 2020. What started as a solo half-marathon fundraiser during COVID turned into something bigger: a community-driven event that brings together patient advocates, local businesses, and women who want to change outcomes for people living with ovarian cancer. In this episode, Alicia talks about what she's seeing in women's health research funding, why her work as a scientist matters less without the human stories behind it, and the productive rage that fuels everything she does.

Key Components:

• How a solo fundraiser became a movement, and what happens when you just share what you're doing and let people show up.
• The glaring gap in women's health research funding: Why ovarian cancer is still the underdog—and what that means for outcomes.
• "Poductive rage" and what happens when you channel dismissal and frustration into action.

"There's been this overarching theme of dismissing women. Dismissing women who come knowing that there's something wrong in their bodies. Unfortunately, that's the overwhelming theme anytime I survey individuals who've been diagnosed with ovarian cancer."

👟 Check out Run For Her 
Connect with Alicia on Instagram

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🤘 Podcast produced by Binge-Worthy Studio

For informational and entertainment purposes only — not medical advice. We're here to get loud, not to play doctor.

Lily Thrope is a licensed clinical social worker and certified intuitive eating counselor with a private practice in Manhattan. She specializes in eating disorders, body image, and women's health—and she came to this work because she lived it. She got her period at 10, spent two decades battling an eating disorder that no doctor caught, and it wasn't until a friend finally named it that she began recovery. Throughout college and her early twenties, she lost her period for months at a time, saw multiple doctors, and not one of them asked the question that mattered: Are you eating enough? Now she runs a practice treating women in larger bodies, hosts free Recovery Supper Club dinners in NYC, and is passionate about one thing: the dangerous intersection of eating disorders and women's health.

Key Components:

• Starting her period at 10 changed everything — it was the moment her body became something to shrink instead of something to live in.
• How doctors never asked the one question that mattered, and instead went through years of tests and theories while the real answer went unspoken.
• Why doctors hand out weight loss prescriptions like they're candy, and what that actually does to women with PCOS, endometriosis, and eating disorder histories.
• From rock bottom to building a practice where women in larger bodies actually get support: Her journey from restricting her way through college to helping others recover.

"Not one doctor that I saw said, 'are you eating enough? What's your relationship with food like?' No one thought to ask those questions and I slid under the radar and was never noticed until this friend in grad school who noticed it."

Check out thropetherapy.com
Connect with Lily on Instagram @thropetherapynyc 

👉 Click here to join the movement at downthereaware.org

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🤘 Podcast produced by Binge-Worthy Studio

For informational and entertainment purposes only — not medical advice. We're here to get loud, not to play doctor.