Endometriosis, PCOS, and menopause: Why women's pain gets ignored with Dr. Tarryn Kawalsky
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Dr. Tarryn Kawalsky came on to talk about something I've been thinking about constantly since becoming a mother: the massive gap between what women experience in their bodies and what the medical system actually addresses. She's a GP, co-founder of The Ovarian Club podcast, and she spent her community service year in obstetrics and gynecology at a top South African hospital where she witnessed firsthand how women get dismissed.
The statistics are wild. Women weren't required to be included in clinical trials until 1990. One in ten women has endometriosis, but doctors aren't taught to ask about painful periods during routine visits. Tarryn talks about patients coming in with completely unrelated complaints, and when she asks basic questions about their menstrual cycle or perimenopause symptoms, suddenly there's this whole other picture. Women reporting crippling pain every month but thinking it's normal. Women put on antidepressants in their forties without anyone checking if it might be perimenopause first. Hormone replacement therapy that could prevent bone density loss and cardiovascular problems isn't even available in the public sector.
What landed for me is how Tarryn had to actively unlearn her male-centric medical training. She's teaching herself to treat symptoms even when biomarkers look "normal," to believe women when they say something's wrong, to actually listen instead of just checking boxes. We talked about postpartum care being basically nonexistent after six weeks, about how chewable Viagra exists while ovarian cancer gets a fraction of the research funding, about the difference between doctors who listen and doctors who don't. Her message to women: know your symptoms, don't let yourself be gaslit, seek second opinions. Your body is yours and you know it better than anyone else.
Connect with Tarryn:
The Ovarian Club - https://linktr.ee/theovarianclub
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/theovarianclub/
Follow Carly on:
Website: https://onthecouchwithcarly.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfBi56xQookfRGL3zvWVzCg
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onthecouchwithcarly/?hl=en
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/onthecouchwithcarly/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@onthecouchwithcarly
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/za/podcast/on-the-couch-with-carly/id1497585376
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3t7A2FMnISQ2fz9D5p0Xuw
The statistics are wild. Women weren't required to be included in clinical trials until 1990. One in ten women has endometriosis, but doctors aren't taught to ask about painful periods during routine visits. Tarryn talks about patients coming in with completely unrelated complaints, and when she asks basic questions about their menstrual cycle or perimenopause symptoms, suddenly there's this whole other picture. Women reporting crippling pain every month but thinking it's normal. Women put on antidepressants in their forties without anyone checking if it might be perimenopause first. Hormone replacement therapy that could prevent bone density loss and cardiovascular problems isn't even available in the public sector.
What landed for me is how Tarryn had to actively unlearn her male-centric medical training. She's teaching herself to treat symptoms even when biomarkers look "normal," to believe women when they say something's wrong, to actually listen instead of just checking boxes. We talked about postpartum care being basically nonexistent after six weeks, about how chewable Viagra exists while ovarian cancer gets a fraction of the research funding, about the difference between doctors who listen and doctors who don't. Her message to women: know your symptoms, don't let yourself be gaslit, seek second opinions. Your body is yours and you know it better than anyone else.
Connect with Tarryn:
The Ovarian Club - https://linktr.ee/theovarianclub
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/theovarianclub/
Follow Carly on:
Website: https://onthecouchwithcarly.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfBi56xQookfRGL3zvWVzCg
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onthecouchwithcarly/?hl=en
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/onthecouchwithcarly/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@onthecouchwithcarly
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/za/podcast/on-the-couch-with-carly/id1497585376
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3t7A2FMnISQ2fz9D5p0Xuw
Chapters
- 00:14 Introduction to Dr. Tarryn Kawalsky and her background
- 03:36 Tarryn's passion for women's health from community service experience
- 04:30 Learning about perimenopause after medical training, not during
- 06:04 The gap between patient education and consumer marketing
- 08:51 Why doctors should always ask about menstrual cycles
- 09:29 Endometriosis affects one in ten women but remains underdiagnosed
- 10:46 PCOS and its metabolic, hormonal impacts on women
- 11:43 Perimenopause symptoms women aren't taught to recognize
- 12:13 Depression at 40 being treated without checking hormones first
- 13:33 Women normalizing pain and chronic distress in their bodies
- 14:25 Chewable Viagra versus two drugs licensed for female sexual dysfunction
- 15:32 Women excluded from clinical trials until 1990
- 16:17 Ovarian cancer funding compared to testicular cancer
- 20:18 Postpartum care failures and lack of screening
- 22:34 Postpartum depression manifests two weeks after discharge from hospital
- 23:54 Hormone replacement therapy unavailable in South African public sector
- 26:31 The need for preventative conversations during pregnancy
- 28:00 Listening to patients as actual data collection
- 30:41 Hormone levels fluctuate, making single tests unreliable for perimenopause
