CRAMPED is a new podcast exploring one of the medical world’s most dismissed mysteries, asking why do we know so little about period pain?
The series is produced in partnership with the Simons Foundation’s Science Society and Culture initiative and the Arkansas Podcast Collaborative.
Acclaimed producer and storyteller Kate Helen Downey tackles the lack of research and understanding around menstrual pain – and how that neglect ripples through health, economics, and everyday life.
Across 10 episodes, Kate goes on a deeply personal, often hilarious, and hopeful quest to uncover why period pain has been dismissed for so long and what it will take to fix it.
Drawing from her own two-decade battle with “death cramps,” Kate interviews top experts, patient advocates, and fellow “crampers”.
From TikTok wellness scams to groundbreaking lab research, CRAMPED is equal parts science, storytelling, and cathartic comedy about a problem that affects millions but is still treated like a punchline – or worse, ignored entirely. As Downey puts it: “Because having a microphone gets you more answers than having a uterus.”
Episodes tackle topics including:
- What actually causes period cramps, what treatments exist, and why so many people get stuck in ‘limbo’, with Dr Karen Tang, a leading gynaecologist and author
- The surprising ways TV and media shape women’s health, with Madeline Di Nonno, President & CEO of the Geena Davis Institute
- A field trip to a cutting-edge research lab finally working to uncover the causes of period pain
- Patient advocates helping Congress craft a bill for women’s healthcare funding, featuring Jonelle Henry, co-founder of the White Dress Project
- How much period pain is costing the GDP and what can be done about it
- Why severe period pain is so often dismissed or mistreated in emergency situations with Dr Darien Sutton, ER doctor and ABC News medical correspondent
Kate also talks to fellow crampers such as podcaster Sydney Battle about how they cope.
“After years of trying to deal with this pain alone, I didn’t expect to have so much fun talking about something that hurts so much,” says Kate. “This podcast is for anyone who deals with period pain, loves someone who does, or is simply curious about why something so common is still so misunderstood.”
New episodes of CRAMPED will release on Tuesdays, starting 4 February on all podcast platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music.
