Women Like Sex: Life After Death Cramps
Artwork by Ted Nunes
“Having a microphone gets you more answers than having a uterus.” - Kate Helen Downey
That quote from this week’s guest really resonates with me. Kate is an award-winning podcast producer, among her many hats, which you can read about at katehelendowney.com.
Before I met Kate and listened to her investigative podcast CRAMPED (named a Top 20 podcast of 2025 by The Atlantic and Audible) some questions I’d never thought to ask include:
What causes period pain and who’s studying it?
If we use pee and poop for diagnostic sampling, why not menstrual blood?
Does ibuprofen not show up – at all – in the bloodstream of a quarter of the people who just took it for menstrual cramps?
Have crash test dummies been hurting women?
The answers lie in what I call the “there be dragons” territory of medicine’s long and abject refusal to study half the planet. As a result, female bodies suffer so much unnecessary pain, often in silent acceptance.
Including menstrual cramps, which can range from a little discomfort to repeated ER visits.
Like Kate’s. For more than 20 years she had what she calls "death cramps.” She’d throw up with her period, a lot, and often faint from the pain. She saw scores of doctors and when the correct diagnosis finally came, Kate was told it was something her school nurse should’ve been able to spot: endometriosis.
On the way to her diagnosis and an operation that’s left her virtually free of debilitating pain, Kate picked up a mic and made CRAMPED. In doing so, she isn’t just helping others like her realize they’re not alone. She’s teaching all of us about exciting new science, our problematic medical system, and even sexist crash test dummies and countertops. While busting many myths along the way. .
A full transcript of our conversation is available here.
Kate Downey: Instagram
Women Like Sex is a Flipped Script production
Executive Producer / Editor: Natasha Senjanovic
Website Design and Artwork: Ted Nunes
Associate Producer: Edecio Martinez
Music: Funky Fortune by Danny Shields