Life Uncut - PCOS - Uncut with Angie Kent and Dr Izzy Smith

Episode Date: May 9, 2022

Heyyyya Lifers!Today we are taking a big ol' deep dive into a condition that affects 1 in 10 women; and also one that is not spoken about or understood enough - Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS).Joining us to talk about her personal experiences of being diagnosed with PCOS is the hilarious Angie Kent. Angie has had quite the journey with her uterus and hormones and in this chat she shares a lot of advice on what to look out for, how to prep yourself medically, looking at a holistic approach for treatment/management and how it has affected her sex/love life.Also joining us to get the medical deets is the wonderful Dr Izzy Smith. She is an endocrinologist and unpacks the ins and outs of everything PCOS.Dr Izzy also breaks down a lot of the misconceptions about the contraceptive pill!We open this episode with a bit of chat about fashion expectations while you're pregnant, and how the media paints 'normal' jobs with judgemental undertones.Todays episode is brought to you by VUSH wellness and their new product the AURA.Everyone at some stage struggles from period pain or pain associated with things like endometriosis or PCOS, well the VUSH AURA is a TENS device, targeted to help relieve the most severe period pain, naturally. Click here and Use the code LIFEUNCUT to get 20% off.Tell your mum, tell your dad, tell your dog, tell you friend that may have PCOS and share the love because WE LOVE LOVVVVVEEEE xxSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A Life Uncut podcast acknowledges the traditional custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders, past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today. This episode is recorded on Gadigal land of the Aurora Nation. Hey guys, and welcome back to another episode of Life Uncut. I'm Brittany. And I'm Laura.

And I just want to say, I hope that you guys are going into the week with the confidence that Rihanna goes into her fashion choices now that she's pregnant. Isn't she just killing it? She just doesn't care. She's living her best sexy life, and I'm here for it. I mean, I was just looking at the reason why I brought this up is because I was literally rogue.

I wasn't ready for that. Everyone. Let's talk about Rihanna. No, I was literally just looking at a photo of her just then. And I think that she has completely redefined what it means and like what fashion means when you're pregnant. So many women, when they're pregnant, like we've been told that like pregnancy is not sexy.

Like pregnancy is this thing that like when you're pregnant, you're like this beautiful beacon of life. That's bringing life into the world. it's a body that's meant to be cherished but it's not really a body that we look at in the way of sexuality we kind of think like as soon as a woman is pregnant they're no longer this sexual being and I just love that she has completely turned that on its head do you know I was just thinking about this because I was just thinking if I was in Rihanna's position too I would have that confidence she's she's ridiculously attractive she's so smart but did you know that she is

the second richest female entertainer ever she's worth 1.7 billion dollars did you know she's a billionaire literally zero idea but also like part of he's not surprised like I said you know this idea that you're supposed to behave a certain way or look a certain way when you're pregnant yeah like oh I better put my belly away now that I'm growing a child like why yeah and I remember when I was pregnant there's this real feeling of oh nothing fits me nothing feels good on me I don't feel attractive and don't get me wrong I know a lot of women think and feel really beautiful when they're pregnant and really embrace being pregnant like there were definitely times I was like wow I feel like this womanly being but I guess in my body I didn't have the same I didn't

feel like clothes fit me very well I didn't feel like I could get out there and have a midriff on put it that way but then I also realized looking back it's because I was trying to dress for the standards of what my body normally looks like like I was trying to dress for the way that society goes oh a midriff is supposed to be for people who have no bumps and curves or anything else you know like there's a very specific way that society tells us isn't isn't okay to dress and I was trying to conform to that well that's what you so you probably weren't dressing because you didn't feel confident you were dressing because you know you were not looking at anyone else pregnant that was dressing in this way because before rihanna i don't think we've really had anyone in the public

eye that we've been able to look up to that has just actually owned their pregnancy body and i think on that as well like this photo i'm looking at right now she is only i think she's only a few weeks away from having a baby and she's wearing like thigh high boots tiny little leather shorts a crop top and then she's got this sequinty thing over the top. She's so hot. I see these photos and I think it's such an incredible celebration of like one her views on fashion but two her changing body and embracing it for what it is and not changing her personality or changing the way that she views clothes just because she's moved into this new phase of motherhood which I think happens to so many of us. For your next pregnancy I want to see you in lacy bras, thigh high boots,

I want to see you out there. Let's tell you what the episode is about before we get any further. What a rogue little intro that was. I love it when you just spring them on me too. She never tells me what she's going to say. She just throws it at me. I really do hope that you spend this week with the confidence that she has. That's exactly what I want you to bring to this world, every single person listening. So today's episode, we are talking about something that affects so many women, but in the same sentence, so many women don't know about it or don't know the specifics about it. And to be honest, I knew about it from the outskirts and I've seen it a lot in the medical industry, but I didn't know specific details about it until I started to

speak to my friends that suffered from it. That is right. We are doing an episode for you guys on PCOS or polycystic ovarian syndrome. Yes. And we also have the very freaking awesome Angie Kent, who we wanted to attack this episode with having somebody who has a lived experience of PCOS and also Dr. Izzy Smith, who is a endocrinologist. And she looks at and talks about PCOS from more like the technical side in terms of treatment, in terms of diagnosis. But we wanted to really give you an episode that kind of covered both what it is to have the lived experience and what it is to actually go down the more formal treatment side. Now, the thing that I found so interesting about this, and I would hate for somebody who doesn't have PCOS to go,

oh, okay, this episode doesn't relate to me. It is. It's for you too. It relates to everyone. I think we've been brought up in a society that believes that periods are supposed to be painful, that like women's problems, like women are supposed to be uncomfortable once a month. Hey, you just deal with it. And so many people who have PCOS for that very reason go undiagnosed for so long. But not only do those people go undiagnosed, like other women, i.e. myself, don't have the understanding around what that means. And so like when you, when you learn about these things as we have, and to be able to have these conversations it means that if you have friends and family in your life who are suffering from

endometriosis we've done an awesome episode on that or who are suffering from PCOS it gives you more understanding to be able to have that empathy to be able to talk to them about it and to be able to relate to what it is to be a woman and have these issues but the other thing is the reason that it could be for you even if you don't have it now is unfortunately things like PCOS it's not something that you're like oh I was born with this this is what I have yes this can happen to anyone from any age after puberty. So I know people that were diagnosed in their late 20s, never had it, late 20s, 30s, early 20s. This is why it could be for you as well, because maybe something's going on in your body right now that you don't know about. And this might not have even

crossed your mind. So I'm hoping that this resonates with a lot of people or gets a lot of people ticking over in their brain thinking, oh, I have had a few of those symptoms. Maybe I'll go and get checked. It's actually so interesting that you said that, Britt, because I think that that is for me that was like one of the biggest take-home messages and also just recently producer Keisha like producer Keisha she's in her late 20s she's just in the last couple of weeks which is also one of the reasons why we were so excited to do this episode she's just being diagnosed with PCOS now that doesn't mean that she's going to have it for life but she started having these symptoms like getting acne out of nowhere having really irregular periods she's like I felt like I was a

bit hairier she was like I was getting laser and I was like I was a bit hairier but for her she was like this makes so much sense now totally and I think like for so many people because if you don't know the symptoms if you don't know the things to look out for then if you start to experience these like irregularities it can kind of be trumped up to just like oh that's what all women go through at different points but it really isn't and like we need to have more and like clearer understanding about what our body does and what a period is and how our periods behave so that way if something does change you can advocate for your own health you can go and find a health care specialist that really fucking understands women's business and can like give you the correct treatment and you

aren't misdiagnosed yeah and in addition to that this is heavily around pcos but we touch on the pill as well dr izzy smith talks about misconceptions around the pill so there really is something in this for everyone now because we're doing this episode on pcos we have a sponsor vush now you might know vush as well the sexual realm the sexual probably own a vibrator i do i do too remember i had sex with the packaging by accident oh my god that's actually i just remember that's probably one of my second favorite moments i don't even know if vush are aware of this but they were like hey we want to sponsor an episode i was like cool remember that time that i tried to use your packaging as a vibrator. That's a fun story. Quickly, if you guys don't know that Laura,

the bush packaging for the vibrator is really like deliciously soft and smooth. It also looks like a big massive penis because it's a big cylinder as well. Laura thought the whole packaging was the dildo anyway. I got on the podcast and I was like, I don't understand how this is the vibrator because it's so big. And then I found out that actually the vibrator was inside the packaging. She sent me a photo. I nearly died of laughter. Like I nearly killed over. Anyway, no. So Vush have actually launched into the wellness space and we want to tell you about a specific product, which is the TENS machine. Now a TENS machine, Laura is actually going to talk about it because she's used it, but a TENS machine is used to help relieve extreme period pain or things

that might, pain that might be associated with things like endometriosis. It's like a little machine that you you stick on this bush machine is called the aura it doesn't have any like wires or cords or anything it's just these little sticky pads so it's this really small cute looking machine that just sticks on and does its thing i used a tens machine when i was in labor and what it does is it it interrupts the pain signal that your brain is sending to your body and so i was in a lot of pain ladies and gentlemen you're like turn that bad boy up yeah so like as you are having contractions what you can do is there's different settings for the TENS machine the one that I was using and you can amp it up and then as the contractions get more and more intense you can

amp up the TENS machine and it it sends almost like this like electric pulse vibration almost which isn't painful but it's a it's a weird or different sensation and that different sensation is kind of gives you something else to focus on and I guess in the same way if you are somebody who has pain from endometriosis or you have pain from difficult periods, it works in exactly the same way. And I mean, if you really just want a fun Saturday night, you can stick it to your boyfriend and like ram it all the way off and see how he reacts. Okay. But did it actually, I mean, that is a great idea, but did it work for you? So when you were trying to redirect these electrical signals, did it take the pain away and help you get through it? I mean,

it didn't take the pain of channel birth away entirely. You still have a small child ripping your vagina open yes look I mean but it definitely helped it took the edge off and I think like obviously we can't really compare childbirth to period pain they're very very different types of pain in terms of like severity but for those like and especially for like pre-labor like the early labor stages where the pain is very similar to period pain and is very similar to like that like low thumping heavy pain that you get yeah massively it helps it also just it gives you something to focus on that's outside of your own body that you have control over as well. Now that is all coming up on today's episode. We love Angie Kent. She's an absolute dream boat. So

you guys, I'm sure so many of you know who she is. She's so funny. And she has such an interesting story because she has had literally so many different types of health issues in terms of her reproductive system, in terms of her ovaries and her uterus. Well, she has five. She has more than we actually even knew. She rattled off five different things that she's got going on. And for somebody who has faced so many challenges when it comes to her own health, I think that she just has an incredibly positive outlook on it and she's a breath of fresh air to listen to. But something I wanted to talk about before we get into that, now this is an interesting

one because this is something Britt and I were talking about over the weekend and partly we were discussing whether or not we should talk about it on the podcast. We were discussing it just in general as friends discussing an article and then we thought should this be something we bring to you guys? And also, and we'll get into the reason why behind that, but it was because we thought, do we want to bring more light to this? But basically what has happened and the articles that we're referring to. Now, you guys might be familiar with a really famous actress.

She was from Packed to the Rafters. Her name is Jessica Murray. She's a brilliant actress. She is a 14 times Logie nominee. She's a seven times Logie winner within Australia. Now, back in 2018, she walked away from her career in acting. She decided that it wasn't for her. she was also needing to focus on her own health and it was widely reported on at the time that

she was focusing on her own mental health and now recently there have been a whole spat of articles and at first it was just Daily Mail and that's why we were like you know what we're not going to talk about it because we don't want to draw more attention to the stuff that Daily Mail report on more than we already do guys but then it was also on news.com and there have been many other huge media publications that have picked up the article Jessica has she no longer works in acting she has removed herself from acting and is now working at a waitress at a local cafe in the eastern suburbs now the reason why we wanted to talk about this is because when we saw the article we were so fucking mad both of us and that was the conversation that we had had surrounding this

because the idea that somebody who has removed themselves from the from the public light who has removed themselves from public speculation public gaze they're no longer choosing to be an actress is still being put through the same public scrutiny that somebody who's in that situation is but also the judgment the judgment that the articles are laced with in terms of what she's now doing for a profession is just so so fucked up there were three articles in the one week about the same thing but it was the headline as well that kick-started order up logy winning actress Jessica Murray cleans tables and serves drinks while waitressing at a Sydney cafe. I don't think any of that information is A, relevant. B, like you just said, Laura, the thing that really ticks

me off is just because somebody once upon a time was in the public eye. And we know now, right? We know that if you want to be in the public eye, we say it. We're like, well, yes, you do open yourself up to articles, to people wanting to photograph you, to all of those things. Do you necessarily want it? No. Do you sometimes have to accept a level of that? Yes. Jess in particular. And there are a lot of, we're speaking about Jess just because this is what the articles are about at the moment, but this goes for anybody. She's so far removed. You could not remove yourself any further than Jess has. She has literally years ago, she's pulled out of everything she's done. And she's like, I have decided which you are allowed to do mind you that I don't want to

live this life anymore. She's got a child. She's, she just wants to be living normal life. She wants to work a normal job for her to have that taken away from her for her to have people come up to her work where she can't escape sit on the street photograph you to then put an article up saying that you're cleaning tables is such a level of invasion and disrespect because now she's not asking for this in fact she's every part of her has said please let me live my life leave me alone and that's been taken away from her there's actually quite a few different parts of this to unpack and the reason why we wanted to talk about this is because it doesn't just have to do with Jessica actually recently James Matheson was photographed and James Matheson used to be

a presenter on Idol he he was like in equivalent to say Usher Gunzberg back in the day in terms of his prolificness within Australian media and he was recently photographed with his new career he works in Amazon and he made an active choice to walk away from the spotlight because it didn't serve him and it didn't align with his core values in the same way that it doesn't align with the core values that Jess has. It's not like she was at the bottom of her career and couldn't get another job. She was at the height of her career. They were re-signing another season of Packed to the Rafters when she chose to leave. Oh, she chose to leave. Actually, it wasn't even just that. She ended up saying no to three or four huge productions. So this is well and truly

her choice. And I guess the question is, yeah, and like you said, Britt, you know, we have spoken on the podcast before about how celebrities open themselves up to a level of criticism however surely when those celebrities choose to walk away from the spotlight they're allowed and entitled to privacy and I think the issue is as well is that when a paparazzi went like normally if a paparazzi is taking photos of you down at Bondi beach you can get in your car and you can drive away but there is just this huge and gross invasion that happens when a paparazzi is standing across from someone at their work, taking photos of them when they can't say, oh, I'm not going to go outside and serve those tables because then that impacts their career. I'm not going to go

and deliver those things at Amazon. They're almost in a hostage situation where they have to walk outside. They're going to have these photos taken of them. And then those photos are going to be repurposed in countless articles that are, they're written in a positive way. Like if you read the actual language around it, it's written with positive overtones, but the undertones of the article are so shameful and it's saying that like look at this fall from grace and I just think when we see media like this when we consume media like this I hope that other people are as angry as what we are when we see this and I know that so many of you listeners would be but more so I think questioning what is the intention of that what is the purpose of that article what do they get out

of celebrating essentially what they are classifying a fall from grace and off the back of Jess's article came another article this was just a couple of days ago about every Aussie star that has left acting or left the spotlight to go and have a normal job and then it goes through and it lists what everyone's done and then it lists their personal struggles and I just think that the word and this is what got me a lot too about Jess the word personal struggles like the first word of that is personal this is not for the world like these personal struggles shouldn't be listed in an article as to why somebody may or may not be doing a certain job so that really just I'm getting a bit angry but it really pissed me off like I just think that that should be

no one else's business and it shouldn't have anything to do with what we're talking about well I think as well like you've you've hit the nail on the head with that because in terms of when you say that the overtones of the article like the what they've written they're like oh she seems so happy and like it's written in a positive way but then when you at the bottom of an article, write someone's personal struggles, what you're actually trying to do is say, look at how they failed. That's what that is. Look at how they got here. Look at how they ended up where they are. And I think that there is a bigger question that needs to come into play here and a bigger point. And that is why do we deem some industries successful and some industries as not

successful? Like no job is better than another job. No job implies success over another job. You know, I think like, yes, sure. We might look at the acting world or we might look at having fame as being a mark of success but if that fame comes at the cost of your own mental health if you're not able to thrive in that environment then that isn't a mark of success that is like an incredibly awful environment to put yourself into but if you can find happiness fulfillment and value and purpose in doing a job that is like say in quotations what they've described as a normal job there's so much more power and value that comes in that and I hate that we're looking at or the media looks at it through a negative lens

when the media has so much impact in swaying people's perceptions. I also think there's a big misconception around, and this is not for everyone, obviously there are the big Hollywood stars that make their millions and millions of dollars per movie, but for a lot of actors and actresses in the industry, people think that that is directly associated with extreme wealth, but it's not.

A lot of actors that are, in Australia especially, a lot of actors that you see on your TV, a lot of them are normal salaries, but I think we sit back as the public and we think, oh, they're loaded. When that season ends or when that movie's finished and there might be a year before another movie, that literally means that person is not getting an income for that time. So people do need to go and find money. COVID has happened for two years. That affected everybody in the world. So I don't know. I just think it's something to remember when we are looking at these people that a lot of them are

normal people, maybe not in an everyday job. While we're talking about the media and we're talking about the perception around how celebrities are framed, especially when it comes to paparazzi photos there was something that happened recently that I thought tied into this so perfectly and so many of you I'm sure have seen it but for those of you who haven't there were photos of Lisa Wilkinson that was taken she was in Melbourne she was sitting at a restaurant and she was sitting near the window of the restaurant by herself on her laptop drinking a margarita now yes woman live your best life living her best fucking life doing a bit of work having a margie and having dinner on her own now there was outside that window and you've got to

imagine this was dark because it was night time so you know when it's dark and you're sitting inside a well-lit room you can't necessarily see who's outside like of a restaurant you know it's usually darker on the street than what it is inside lisa said she could see that there was a photographer out there taking photos of her and she was like fucking paparazzis can't get a minute's break but the article that came out was like lisa wilkinson places the napkin on her lap then she takes a bite of her broccoli then she tucks her hair behind her ear it was this grossly detailed version of what she had done that night so the photographer had been there for an extended period of time watching her that in itself has so many issues because I mean you guys might not know

but like literally every single paparazzi I have ever seen is a man second to that though is that the article was framed to make Lisa Wilkinson look pathetic here is a woman on her own eating dinner and having a margarita. How sad. That is the article that was put out there in the world. And I think there is so much damage that can be done by the media in the way that they can frame a story and then how that impacts public perception of that person. Lisa Wilkinson put out a really great post on Instagram. And if you want to see it, it's a picture of Leonardo DiCaprio. And it says, once you hit a certain age, you become permanently unimpressed by a lot of shit. And this is what she has to say in her caption. Here's to women everywhere being able to happily

and safely take themselves out for dinner after a long day to do some work to plow through a few dozen emails to text some friends to have a cheeky cocktail to eat broccoli because hey greens catch up on some reading wear clothes tuck their hair behind their ear and place a white napkin on their lap in pairs without worrying about being shamed or judged or disrespected or made to feel totally violated by some old creepy guy secretly taking pictures designed to make you look sad and lonely when actually you're having a great night doing exactly what you want to be doing with exactly the person you want to be doing it with. Well played, Lisa Wilkinson.

I'm looking at the photos now, but this article and these photos were everywhere. So if you didn't see them, just do a little Google search so you know what we're talking about. And you'll just think, God, you're living your best life, Lisa. But it was the opening line for this. Lisa Wilkinson cuts a lonely figure while she dined out. Now, the one thing that I want to add to this is lonely and alone don't have to be interchangeable.

Totally. It doesn't mean that you've got no one to hang out with. It doesn't mean that you are super lonely and pathetic. It just means that you are comfortable with yourself. Maybe you don't feel like socialising with anyone else that night. But Lisa Wilkinson here, she's got her laptop out in front of her. She's literally away on a work trip. She's not like she's just at home.

She's away on a work trip. She's doing work. And the fact that the whole article is made to her look pathetic and lonely is what really grinds my gears. we need to challenge ourselves when we read articles that have been put together especially based on paparazzi photos the story has been completely fabricated based on that moment in time paparazzi photos are not indicative of what that person is going through or indicative of the space of life that they're in and just as you said that being alone and being lonely are not

interchangeable things I think it also kind of circles back to this conversation around Jess Murray where it's like success is not defined by the occupation that you have if Jess was struggling with her mental health by being in the limelight but now is in a much happier and more peaceful place that is far more successful and something that we should be celebrating rather than the career options that she's chosen for herself what I do love to see though is that like you just said Laura the media have always skewed our opinions on things without like subconsciously we're led to believe things because we're reading them all the time what I do love to see is on both of these articles that we're talking about the articles talking about Jess and the celebrities that are

now working the quotation normal job and the article about Lisa Wilkinson when you read the comments and I love to see it because a lot of the time the comments are bad but the comments are really in both of these articles are really supportive and it's nice to see society is pushing back against media people are like one of the comments is what kind of loser thinks this is is suitable for a news article Lisa is such an incredible woman she's so smart you guys are simpletons a lot of people are pushing back now and we're not being so led down the garden trail by media. And I think that that is partly the reason why we wanted to talk about this is because we were so angry by it. And we know that so many of you guys, if you have seen the same articles

would have had those same feelings. And if you didn't have those feelings and you just read it at face value, it's probably because you hadn't unpacked the nuance of what that means and what that situation is from being stalked by a fucking paparazzi who's a man. Well, I reckon it's time for Accidentally Unfiltered. Let's get into it. All right. I have quite a quick, but also very funny one this morning i've never been more embarrassed in my entire life i was in the middle of a home waxing when i heard someone knock at the door it was then i realized that i had completely forgotten about the electrician that was due to come that day so i raced to the front door in my daggy nightie and i apologized to the man and explained it totally slipped my

mind i walked him through the bathroom where he had to do the work and said oh i'm so sorry about the wax strips i just finished waxing my legs in quotation marks she was definitely waxing her lady parts I went and pretended to be busy at the back in the kitchen and I walked him out when he was finished it was only on my way back to the bathroom that I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror I still had a wax strip stuck to my fucking ass crack with my nightie stuck to the strip full exposure I was so caught off guard because I forgot that he was coming I forgot I had a wax strip on my asshole there is no way that he would not have seen it as he was walking directly behind me so the 90 was stuck up in the butt so she had the wax strip that was in her butt

crack that was in her ass crack you cannot write that also how do you not feel a wax strip in your butt crack well she probably could feel it in there but she probably didn't know the 90 was stuck to it she would have just thought that was still in there ready to pull off yeah you reckon she was just like prepared for as soon as he left but no he was like you don't need to pay me for today lassie the 90 was just sitting perfectly perched on top of the of the wax strip which meant her entire butt crack and the wax whip were out on display. That reminds me of that time in the early days, season one, when we started this podcast and we hired a studio and we used to go,

like Laura and I used to go into this little studio to record. I remember the day you got out of your car and your dress was tacked up into your undies. I remember you walked down the main street in Sydney with the dress up. I had suppressed this memory. Guys, not only did I walk with it tucked in, it was a skirt and it was completely tucked into my underwear from behind and I walked the length the length of South Dowling Road like I'm talking like 300 meters

and I had a couple of beeps and one guy called out the window and I was like oh yeah mama's got it today I was really feeling myself I'd only just had Marley yeah everyone was tooting me and I was like I was feeling like I was getting back in shape and it was only when this man walked up to me and I was like fuck I'm really I'm on fire today that he said I'm so sorry to embarrass you but your entire underwear is out at the back and it was inside the top of my g-string and my whole my everything it wasn't even like there weren't even Bridget Jones's that had coverage it was a g-banger it was a g-banger with a pad in it dear bloody god anyway suppress that oh okay all right give me your accidentally unfiltered Britney all right well I am just going to give you an innocent

one today I'm just really trying to wind back the mate I'm not here for the pg shit well I've got two that I've been trying to decide between ones. Okay. Actually, Laura, maybe you'll relate to this in some capacity. I haven't been to too many mum at school dinner dates, but I decided I should really try and make an effort and meet some other mums. There were 20 mums going out to dinner on a Wednesday night from my son's class and I knew maybe two of them. So I was excited to meet some new people. I got there early, about 10 minutes. I looked around the restaurant and I saw a really large table inside full of mums I went and sat down started to chat for about 15 minutes everyone seemed really lovely until I turned around and saw the mums that I actually knew outside at a

different table I looked around and I said are you guys at a school dinner and they said no I said why have you let me talk to you for 10 minutes this woman just went and crashed these these women were just sitting there having like a catch-up and this woman came and just sat down and started to talk about her kid and stuff and they all just left that's actually really cute they just laughed she was like why did you let me speak for 15 minutes and they're like well you just seem friendly I actually think that's adorable it's so cute but could you imagine how embarrassed you are like it's because you get nervous that's like a date like when you're going to a mum date you don't know 20 people you're nervous you get there early you want to impress

you want to make friends imagine just going up like but then I tried to put myself in this disposition if I was sitting down at a table and a girl came up and sat down and started talking I would probably just talk to her too I'd probably just like oh she's out for a chat she might be a few margies deep but imagine the moment where she has to get up and then walk and go and sit at the other table she's like oh sorry there's my actual friends you guys are better maybe she'll come back at the end of the night but anyway guys that is it for the intro chat let's get into talking to Angie Kent and Dr. Izzy Smith. We are so excited to have someone who I know you are all going to be very familiar with. She was once upon a time our bachelorette. She has her own radio show and

her own podcast. She was in the jungle. Man, this girl has done literally everything. She's got a book. Like what have you done? It's very annoying how accomplished she is. Angie, welcome to Life Uncut. Thanks, ladies. I'm so excited to be here. Do you know what's crazy is I actually don't know and maybe you can tell me I don't know how many times or if we've physically met or been at anything together but I feel like I know you really well but I don't actually I was just trying to think about it I'm like I don't actually think we've ever met in real life this is the joys of social media is like everyone who moves in the bachelor space thinks that they know each other but no one really knows each other well that's it

because that whole experience is such like an incestual culty situation you almost like bond over trauma you're like we're family so it kind of feels like it speaking of trauma though and something that we also bond over is on every episode we do an accidentally unfiltered story which is basically just your most embarrassing story which you tell and we all laugh about it which I have a feeling you've got a lot I don't know why I have that feeling I have so many I seriously like my whole life is an embarrassing moment but I messaged my manager when I got this email asking and I was like what's a good story and he's like oh he had one in mind and then I was like what about this one and he was like if

you want to say it you can say it but that's cooked but I'm gonna do it anyway no this is what we want this has never been I've never even like I fully blanked it like I fully blanked this happened and I feel like this is the perfect space to share it because you'll semi be able to relate in the sense that it is a Batchy-related embarrassing story. Amazing. Me being Bachelorette alone was just embarrassing enough as is because I'm so awkward, I'm so sweaty. So there was like probably 50,000, but this one I've trauma-blocked

as well, but I've remembered it recently. Do you know what, though, Angie? There's nothing worse than when we get guests on the podcast and they're so scared to tell a good embarrassing story that they're like, oh, this one day I fell over, ha, ha, ha, and you're like, no, man, I need the trauma. Did you shit yourself when you fell over? Otherwise, we don't want to know.

We want to know. We want to know the nitty gritty. No, this one's pretty cool, Tay. Like this one. Okay, let me paint the scene. So obviously you have your first night opening, whatever it is, and it's full on. You're exhausted.

You meet all these people and you're just like, holy shit. And then you go on your first date. My first date happened to be a 24-hour date and I picked the person that I ended up picking at the end, Carlin, for 24 hours. We went camping. You know, it was lovely. It's not really 24 hours,

but we got to drink a lot more than what you normally do that I found out because, you know, you're monitored and we were drinking red wine and, you know, it was fun. Got a little bit drunk but had to get up super early as you do. And the next day was the photo shoot. So you guys know the photo shoot. Oh, the second date. It's like the first group date, isn't it?

No, I wasn't invited on that. I was with like four people that didn't go. It was me. Oh, yeah, not everybody does them. It's kind of like if you're someone who follows Batchy, you would know this, but if you don't follow Batchy, The first group date is a photo shoot. It's usually done for Woman's Day or something like that,

but they kind of turn it into a date. It's weird. It's a weird premise for a date. It's so weird. And mine was animal instincts because they knew how awkward I was, so they were like, let's just make this fun and awkward for her. Anyway, and I had a lot of red wine the night before, so you know what your stomach's like, right, with red wine?

Like, it's not good. And we were out camping, so there was – This story is so gross. So that was only drop toilet? and I knew the boys were coming but Carlin didn't know and I was like oh my god so I was getting nervous for Carlin because he thought we're gonna have this like lovely day together and then all the boys come in there's like 10 of them or something I can't remember and my boys were just so full-on in itself they're all coming but prior to it I was like oh my god I need to shit

like and there's only a drop twin I love that you're whispering this Angie like you're whispering like all Australia's not listening it's like everybody's not gonna listen to it and I go to the toilet and I've got this like Kimmy obviously style me we love Kimmy we love her I think I'm in like jeans a little top and like this long I think it was like a cream coat you know how they have the ties so you like you undo the tie and I've sat down not okay tell me you shit on it and my tie was in the toilet in the drop toilet other people's shit was in the toilet I've shat all over my white fucking coat I've sat up and I've gone oh my god and I know all the boys are coming and I'm like and Carlin's just was so pretty and so lovely well I thought he was and I was like

oh god and it was it was stunk and I was like oh my god I feel sick I'm so sick I wasn't close with the crew yet because like day two so I couldn't be like Kimmy I've shat myself or like Wendy I've shat myself so I'm in there with the sink scrubbing the shit of other people's and my own off my coat I've got my essential oil oils out of the tent and I'm like hang on I just got to take a panadol and I'm like I was so nervous I was sitting there Jaymo was there because it was for Sydney Confidential and I've just met Jaymo I've had to hug all the boys with my shit coat wait you still wore it you didn't go back to styling and say I had to wear it I washed it in the sink oh she goes it's day two I didn't know I could tell my shit on my coat yet

I couldn't tell anybody so I've washed it in the sink just the strip not the coat and I've washed it in the sink and I've walked out and I smelled it and I was like okay it's fine I then had to get dressed like into all my little outfits and stuff for the photo shoot but I stood there introducing the group date being like animal instincts in me shit coat I cannot wait for the socials for this episode to dig out a photo of you in that coat that's gonna be the cover photo we need to see if it's the right unless I took it off maybe I did I think I was too scared because I didn't know people well and by the end I was just like my boobs were out and if I was drunk I was like against the boys by the end do you like yeah I've shit

myself again guys can we change my outfit you were just so much more open then you just started using it as actually a tactic if you didn't like your outfit you're like oh sorry I put it in the toilet I shat on it I shat on it again the one of the actually the reason that could be it we could shut up shop now. That's the reason why we got you on the show today. We just wanted to hear you talk about your shit coat, but there is something else that we want to talk about. And that is you have been super open and very vulnerable sharing your endometriosis and PCOS journey. What was that journey like in terms of finding out that you had endometriosis and finding out that you had PCOS? How did that kind of come about? So I always struggled with my period. I always,

there was always something odd about it. It would come, it would go, but I was always just told because I suffered really badly from disordered eating. That was kind of my own fault that I had kind of, you know, messed up my own period. But I was about 25, I think, where I just said to my, and I, she was like, I got adult acne again. And I was like, I'm just having the worst periods. And she was like, let's pop you on the pill and we'll sort that out. And I was like, I really never wanted to be on the pill. I don't, I didn't care for it. And we did that. And it just, nothing was working. I was bleeding through. And then she was like, I reckon you've got endometriosis. so sometimes in some cases you can do the uh what do you call it i've had a brain freeze i have them

all the time and i can't think of it do you mean ultrasound or something yeah they did the ultrasound ultrasound i don't know why i always forget that word i have them all the time i think because i hate them so much i don't like to remember the word so i had the ultrasound and they couldn't see anything and they were like well usually you have to have keyhole surgery in order to a laparoscopy in order to be diagnosed so i had my first laparoscopy and i did have endometriosis at that point I don't know how long I had it for and I didn't have PCOS at that point my first surgery was so ghastly I went through the the public system and it was just I didn't know my surgeon I didn't know endometriosis I didn't really there wasn't much noise around it even though that was

what eight years ago so yeah it was quite a traumatic experience I didn't feel heard and I didn't know anything about it so how old were you when this when the discovery was made I think I had keyhole, my first keyhole laparoscopy was 26, 26, 27. And I was pretty much traumatized by that experience that I didn't want to do it again. But then symptoms kept getting worse because my surgery actually wasn't performed properly. I ended up very unwell and emergency and had an infection. Then I got onto a really good surgeon who was private, but did public. He also didn't tell me I have PCOS. And then by my third surgery, which was this February 14th, happy Valentine's day to me. Me and my ovaries, me and my cysts. So hot. I just had this old cyst head dude,

just cutting me open. So you can ask me out on a date first guy. Yeah. So he found, he found heaps of stuff. But before my third surgery, it was last year before I left Sydney, actually, and got stuck in the Sydney lockdown. He was like, you're riddled with cysts. And I was like I didn't even know I had that and he's like be really careful with your stress because it's going to make it worse went to Sydney did Dancing with Stars got trapped down there came back and I was just like whoo I was riddled I was absolutely riddled with cysts yeah polycystic ovaries and this was when you found out so it was it was almost eight years after your first endometriosis diagnosis yeah six years six years and were you having symptoms at that time that had differed

from when you had endometriosis or was it just kind of like you had become almost it had become almost normal to have so many issues in terms of like irregular periods and pain and yeah see it's so hard with labeling labeling it down to one thing because i have i have endometriosis i have adenomyosis which is endometriosis is evil cousin they call it which there's hardly anything on that at the moment i'm trying to learn i've obviously just been recently smashed with all these diagnoses so for me learning that is a process in itself and it's quite overwhelming so i get mixed up with all the symptoms because I have so many. So I've endo, adeno, PCOS and I've recently fibroids and I've recently been diagnosed with interstitial cystitis. So my symptoms have always

been really odd period. With PCOS, the main one was I had my last period in August, left for Sydney and only just got my first period again last month. So what's that? Eight months? No period? I mean, talk about overachieving, Angie. You couldn't just have one syndrome. You have to have them all like don't just don't just stop at one well that's the thing when you've I guess it's almost impossible to when you've got two three four things going on in this one confined space how are you supposed to know what symptom is causing what so I don't imagine there is a way to differentiate that it's quite hard I think the biggest thing for anybody with any chats like this what I say when I ever do any talks is that you know your body better than anyone else and the

biggest thing is period pain is not normal we were I think we're all kind of around the same age where even still where we were brought up to be like just get over it you know you've got your period you didn't even learn much about it was pretty much you get your period you could have a baby the end period pain isn't normal yeah yeah it was cool and that's my biggest lesson and learning is this in this is that so many women have reached out to me and told me these horrific stories and how they've been medically gaslit but if you have irregular periods and you're skipping periods for months on end if you're in pain if you're fainting if you're noticing you've got like I started to get like random ass hair growing in places I've never seen before I gained a lot

of weight I went from I had a bit of an issue though so and a piece here was just sort of eating more because you gain all this weight for no reason what a hormone based thing but you're not eating anymore your cravings change and you're just like what's going on so I went from like a ridiculous weight to gaining about maybe eight kilos. And I was kind of like, what's going on? And my acne came back and the anxiety and depression, and they're the main symptoms for PCOS. But again, everybody is so completely different in how they experience any of these chronic invisible illnesses. You mentioned something before, and I think it's kind of really interesting to circle back on this, but you said feeling like you were being medically

gaslit. What was your experience? And I guess knowing that you had been through a few different doctors and a few different surgeons what was your experience in getting to that point of a diagnosis I still feel that I'm not heard sometimes I often leave feeling a little bit because a lot of men work at gyno's which I find quite interesting they're great with the medical side of things obviously but they don't know the trauma response and the anxiety and the stress that comes with it they just know well this is what happens when you have it and you need surgery see you later they don't look after you after it right they don't hold your hand after you being everything taken out of you I just felt like for example with the interstitial cystitis which is a bladder condition

I was always just told I was an anxious person that's why I peed so much my whole bladder was completely just a red blood like I saw pictures recently after my surgery it was just like this round thing of just inflammation and blood but then growing up it was just like oh you just got anxiety. Well, no, I probably had anxiety because I was riddled in pain, but nobody diagnosed me with anything. Exactly. So I just feel like it was that constant passing around of you've just got anxiety. You've just got anxiety. Open me up. My whole body had turned on me. And of course I had anxiety. I was in so much pain and I didn't know why. So it's one of those things where I feel like we're often medically gaslit because we're just told just to get, just to get on with it.

Has anyone, specialist, GP, anyone, or your research, has anyone told you if everything you have, the adeno, the interstitial cystitis, the PCOS, the endo, are any of them related to each other? Is there a direct connection with anything else that you've got? Or are you just unlucky that you've just got all this shit going on? If anybody's going to get anything, it's going to be me. I've always said, because I've got celiac disease as well, it's all inflammation based. So I've always, there's no, I don't think there's any medical real, you know, anything to back this

up. But I think because I've got so much inflammation in my body, I feel that due to maybe having my eating disorder so terribly for so long, I caused a lot of issues in my body. I often don't like to think about that because I don't want to blame myself. And I've done a lot of work emotionally and mentally around it because I'm not endometriosis or adenomyosis or PCOS. I'm just experiencing it because it's so often that we get attached to thinking that we are what we have, right? And then that just makes it worse. The pain is worse. Everything is just so much bigger. I feel that what I did to myself growing up may have a little bit of a part in the inflammation of it and it being as bad as what it was. And obviously the disordered

eating can really mess with your insulin levels which PCOS is a huge thing with but look a lot of it they say is genetics again my mum never thought to check my nan never thought to check and they both suffered with really bad periods a lot of it is genetics and yeah producing extra male hormones which can be from stress and I was very stressed growing up so maybe but I think also so hugely what you just said like your mum and your grandparents and them not getting checked it's like they were of the generation where women just didn't and did exactly that when they were told they had the perception that periods are supposed to be painful and I think it's only with our wave of generation that women are saying this is not right like there's something here is

wrong and there's almost this wave and push of talking about things like PCOS talking about endometriosis a conversation that wasn't on the table 10 years ago it really wasn't in terms of what you do for your own pain in terms of what you do for pain management what has worked for you so far or what are the treatments or processes that you have that either you've used or whether it's been surgery that have been beneficial to you like trialed and tested trialed and I've done it all I'm very big on holistic approaches I've got an amazing team that I've cultivated now but it did it wasn't always like that I mostly focused on what my GP told me which she's amazing the one I was seeing in Sydney but again she's a general practitioner so she only generally practice like

touches on everything right so I had a beautiful naturopath that I actually lost this year when you have all these conditions and you feel so let down and often not heard to have somebody that is your safe person and she put me in touch and with the right people that would listen to me or what the best surgeons or what I was eating and helped me through what my body needs for PCOS certain herbs I could take for inflammation because the idea of taking painkillers all the time gave me anxiety, which would then cause an endometriosis flare up or an interstitial cystitis flare up because stress often causes flare up. So I say, get yourself a really, really good naturopath. It's like a hairdresser. I always say this. If you're going to somebody and they're not listening

to you, it's exactly the same as going to a hairdresser and they keep giving you a shit cut. You're not going to keep going back to them, are you? So find somebody that'll listen to you. Also, I highly recommend natural remedies. Speak to somebody that really is like a dietician in the chronic illness, not just somebody that's like, well, this diet is going to work for anybody, you know, that's tailored to PCOS or endometriosis or whatever you have going on and a really good pain psychologist. I've just started seeing one and that's been really good. I see. That's interesting. So what do they coach you through? How to mentally deal with the pain or how to like remove like is it like a meditative removing yourself state that you put into or like

what's that about? I've only just started with that and it's it's going to be more because I've been suffering really bad panic attacks lately because of the nerve damage and everything around there the instant response to my head is like something really bad's going on so it's kind of just knowing when you have that pain what to do yeah like get your heat pack lay down listen to something that's going to bring you out of that state of fight or flight. Know that you're not dying. You're just in a lot of pain. And we know thoughts are a powerful thing, but in terms of being at home, besides a heat pack and laying down and relaxing, like Laura has used a TENS machine before for when you're in labor. And we know now, I didn't actually know this, but I do

now. I know that you can use it for things like PCOS and endometriosis pain. Have you ever tried that i actually haven't and everybody's so shocked by that i have this like little i usually carry it with me everywhere just in case i have a flower but it's this like little water bottle and you can bring it with you and you plug it in and you hit and you go like that and it heats itself up in the plug i've only used that but i've never used the tens i've heard i should but i don't know well bush is actually one of our sponsors which is very very convenient so i will if you want to give one a whirl that is a part yeah so i'm gonna i'll get your address after this and i'll send you want to have a go especially if you haven't used it because it might be your secret superpower

oh could you imagine I wish there was a portable one that I could wear under all my clothes all the time you probably can't so like the one I used when I was pregnant it's tiny and like as in I used it when I was in labor and you can chuck the pack part in your pocket well that's I mean they're all slightly different but you just put the tabs on you put the pack and then you can bump it up yeah I mean like setting five would have blitzed your ass off like it was like but you can kind of go on the lower settings. In terms of your PCOS and endometriosis, how costly has this been for you? The cost of the procedures, the cost of treatment, the cost of therapies, what impact, financial impact do you think that has had on you?

Well, and have you had any level of assistance from Medicare or what is covered under your private health insurance for people that are scared to go down this path? look i've i i'm a great example of learned through me because i seriously have that's why i'm so open about sharing this i don't do it for attention i don't need people's sympathy or attention by any means i do it because i want to create more awareness around it and i would say if you're gonna be getting laparoscopies definitely have private health because my last one i went private with my private surgeon and through private hospital and my health insurance hadn't kicked in yet for and I only had like the basic one and I've learned the hard way now because my surgery

all up I think let's say probably nine thousand dollars just for the surgery that's just for the surgery that's not for every appointment I go when I go see my gyno when I go see my health care specialist when I go see my physio I was getting treatments for my interstitial cystitis every week I went to see him the needle alone that the syringe they injected into my urethra was 270 and then he was 150 every week that's huge I wouldn't have been able to afford that when I was 26 when I first got diagnosed so that's why I did go through public and I got butchered and I didn't feel held and supported and I understand why that happens to women who has that money laying around it's only fortunate enough now that I've worked quite a

lot and but I still budget like I don't have willy-nilly 300 bucks to just be throwing around to have somebody stick a syringe in my nonker every week like nobody wants to do that that's people's rent that's people's whole what they budget for rent and bills and stuff and to be doing that every single week and not have any assistance it's not fair i think what women have to pay for and what's not carbon medicare i'll get like 30 40 bucks back every time i see my gyno or i don't think i get anything back for physiotherapy which is huge because pelvic floor we have a lot of pelvic floor issues with people who have these invisible illnesses so it's never ending my psych Like I don't, I think maybe I get a Medicare.

You can go through and get the healthcare plan for that kind of stuff to make sure you do that if you want to see a psych for your pain. But you know what? Like I would say if you're going to be getting surgeries, definitely get private health. I know it's so expensive. And then you get the allied appointments that do help.

So learn through me. Otherwise you're out of pocket, you know, nine grand. And that's just, that was a lot. That was a real big kick in the ovaries to think like, I did not ask for any of this. and I'm having to pay for you to remove it. But then if I needed a hysterectomy, they will fight you fucking with everything to make you not get one. It's just very bizarre. The medical system isn't team women yet or people with vaginas, I should say, because I'm not all

women who have periods, you know, they don't identify as women. We're not all people, I should say. So yeah, we're not quite there yet for people with vaginas, I don't think at all. Angie, for having so many different, like for having these different chronic illnesses, what is it for you and how does it feel I should say how does it feel but what is it like having sex is that affected so with relationships and sex I think right now that's kind of for me personally everybody's different I'm it's non-existent I think the fear of having to explain to somebody all of these things that I have going on I can't even comprehend it let alone a partner I'm sure there is people that would hold space for it but I'm not at the stage

where I feel comfortable enough to allow somebody to leading up to it without knowing I had all these chronic invisible illnesses sex was so painful so painful you know it gets to the point where I'm comfortable and I can enjoy it but I gotta be with somebody to feel comfortable enough to even relax for it to get in you know how it's like men find that hot too when you're really tight side note dudes a lot of the time when you're really tight it's because you've got pelvic floor issues so grow up oh we're like oh i'm not even gonna go into it do it do it well we'd go down a whole track of like what men don't get in sex which is not this is not what the podcast is i mean we've had a whole conversation about men thinking not knowing how many holes there are so

i think that there's like many things we can talk about but i have i have a really good friend that has uh she has endo and pcos but she sex is so and i didn't know this until i became good friends with her, sex is so painful to her that she's like, I started having long distance relationships because it was the easy out for me. I didn't have to have sex all the time. I could develop that relationship that was strong enough that when we did meet, I could be more explanatory about like why you need to be really gentle, why we need to take our time. But I didn't know that it was to the point that people struggle to have physical relationships in terms of not physical, but the actual penetrative sex. I think it's interesting because we have so many conversations about what

it feels like as a person like what it feels like to have something like endometriosis but then it's like the other ways it impacts you impacting your ability to have relationships because your sex is affected by it like that doesn't get a lot of air time and it's such a part and parcel of this and of having a chronic illness it doesn't and that's another big thing that I think if I look back now in relationships where I would have sex quite often because I felt that I had to and it was so painful but I could never really explain why I wouldn't do that to myself now I've come far enough to know that the right person that I'm with will hold space for me when I can't have sex and I'm not a man hater by any means a cis het man hater at all but I find because I am pansexual

when I was having sex pre-surgery with people that weren't cis het men they were way more understanding of my pain and my body because they got it as well you know they really got it and they really understood and then we could do other things that were still connecting and sexual but they didn't have to slam dunk me what do you want to say or what would you say to somebody now that's just about to go down this journey that's just figuring it out or that's at home thinking fuck I have some of those symptoms maybe I need to go get checked out what's your advice what do you wish you knew I would say oh what would I wish I knew I would say if you don't feel held and supported definitely get a second and I know it costs a lot of money get us you're worth it get

a second third fourth opinion because you know your body better than anybody better than the professionals so you need to find people that will hold and support you join all the forums but also don't read them like instantly because then you're like I might not should I try that make sure you know what's best for your body because no two bodies are the same and you're all going to experience things differently but cultivate a team that will listen and support you because it can be quite scary. And you can always ask me. I try to get back to anybody that asks me stuff about that.

I'm not a doctor, obviously, but I can point you in to directions that have helped. Angie, thank you so much for coming and sharing this with us. I think you're going to help a lot of people. Thanks, gal. Where can people find you? Tell everyone what you do

and where they can go and track you down. Everywhere. Not your physical address, but like, you know. I live here on a mountain. No, I'm not going to say that where I live. So no, I just on the Instagrams. It's just, I think it's just Angie. Ken with an underscore because I'm old school. I'm an underscore too I think. I'm a pretty

underscore Hockley. I think there was no just Angie Ken so I had to have an underscore but yeah just anytime you know slide into your DMs if you've got a question I do try to get back to everybody or do a Q&A about it because I know it's really scary but I just want people with vaginas who are you know living in fear or not knowing just to know that you're not alone and you're you you can be held and supported for sure. Oh you're definitely not alone and that's the problem. The prevalence is far too high. Angie, thank you so much for coming on and being a part of the podcast. You are wonderful. Thanks, gals. Well, we do have the experts with us today. We have Dr. Izzy Smith here. Dr. Izzy, who I will refer to as Dr. Izzy, is an endocrinologist. So

we've really brought in the big guns. Izzy, welcome to Life Uncut. Thank you so much, Britt. I'm excited to be here as a fan of the podcast. Now, before we get started, like we did just do some bonding over your recent breakup, but that is not why you're here today. Everyone goes through their heartbreak, but you Izzy are an endocrinologist. Now I think there are a lot of people out there that would have absolutely no idea, including myself about the specifics, what an endocrinologist actually does. So can we start by what do you do? Lots of paperwork. No. An endocrinologist is a medical specialist that is any hormone related problem. So I look after anything type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, thyroid, adrenal ovarian, so

anything reproductive hormones, testosterone, polycystic ovarian syndrome that we'll be talking about today. Two or two problems that essentially anything hormone related, which is lots of different things. Okay, so what would be the main reason? So just say someone goes to their GP, I'm assuming for everyone listening, you can't just go to an endocrinologist, you have to get a specialist referral. What is the main reason people would come and see you? What do you get referred the most? I do a lot of work in bone health but I guess it depends what you kind of sub-specialise as in endocrinology but you're correct that you do need a referral and that's for all medical specialties. Like in the States it's different, anyone can see a specialist but

that is a barrier they put up from probably people seeing too many specialists when they might not need to. But I look after so bone health, lots of diabetes, thyroid problems and it kind of depends on the type of person. So a young female who's probably most of your listeners that might be thyroid problems, fertility problems, an older person that might more be osteoporosis, things like that. The thing that we're here to talk about today, which is PCOS, I know that there'll be people listening to this who have it themselves, who are very familiar with the conversation, but there's going to be so many of our listeners who actually have heard of it, but don't have any idea what it actually is.

Can you tell us what is PCOS? First, I'm going to do like a 30 second summary of the female reproductive hormone. You're like, I didn't go to university for 25 years, so I couldn't say this. So essentially, so we've got our ovaries and they are controlled by our brains. We've got these two endocrine organs called the hypothalamus and the pituitary, and they monitor the rest of our body, how much stress we're under, what we've eaten, our energy intake, all these different things. They sense everything and they send messages to the ovaries to make hormones and also release an egg and that's how we ovulate and we get pregnant so the messages come from the pituitary to the ovary and that's how hormones and you know menstrual

cycle occurs that our hormones are up and down in a regular month and period and all of that sometimes regular sometimes absolutely not regular regular for like the cycle of the moon i'm like when's it coming baby checking if i'm pregnant again there's an app for that yeah i was gonna say there's some good tracking apps so pcos or pcos polycystic ovarian syndrome now the name is pretty crap because you'd think it would just be about the, you know, polycystic appearance on the ovaries. And they thought that it should be changed to, you know, ovarian dysfunction androgen syndrome or something, because really it's about the ovaries making too much male hormones. But in PCOS, the messages from the pituitary, from the brain that tell the ovaries

to make hormones, they get a little bit confused and the ratio is out. There's two hormones called LH and FSH, and there's too much LH, which means there's lots of follicles that are stimulated, and that's why it's called polycystic ovarian syndrome we see an ultrasound and we look oh there's lots of follicles so heaps of follicles are stimulated but one isn't then you know developed to then be ovulated so people have high hormone production and they also have high estrogen and high male hormones which are the androgens and that's what causes the acne and then kind of male pattern hair growth and rather than the hormones going up and down in a nice cycle the hormone levels stay pretty much the same all the time and you don't ovulate so people who have

pcos pretty much are not having a period for some people with pcos and let me just explain how we define pcos because it's a syndrome it's not like there's one diagnostic test i was just chatting with your producer before about you know her background and it's a little bit unclear and there's not a clear-cut diagnosis it's not you can do one test and this you have pcos so there's three categories and you need to have two. One is the polycystic ovary appearance on ultrasound, but really important to note, that's only if you're around at least 10 years after your first period. So if you're 18, super common to normal to have polycystic ovaries on ultrasound. So that's one criteria. The second one is high androgens, and that can either be clinically, so you've got

signs of high androgens, so that's acne, body hair growth. And the androgens were the male hormone. So your testosterone essentially. And you can either have the clinical signs or on a blood test, it could be elevated androgens. And then the third one is irregular periods. So that could be no periods at all, or it could be more than 45 days between a cycle or less than eight periods in a year. So we say, if you have two of those three, you have polycystic ovarian syndrome. It's not a perfect diagnostic because someone could have acne and then they could have a missed period because they're actually not eating enough and really lean, but they would still meet those criteria it's two of those three criteria and it's because of those abnormal messages from

the pituitary to the ovary and we don't have that nice menstrual cycle you're not ovulating it's the most common cause of anovulatory so not ovulating infertility and a common cause of needing you normally don't need IVF for PCOS but you know sometimes might need some other assistance yes you're not ovulating and that problem is when we're not ovulating and if anyone has lost their period and they're like oh this is great I'm not going to see the doctor I don't want to have a period once a month if you have PCOS and you're not ovulating you're getting excess estrogen stimulating the lining of the uterus which is called the endometrium and normally we need progesterone to balance that out and if you don't get that progesterone you're actually increasing

the risk of endometrial cancer and tragically I've had women you know my age that have had PCOS not had it treated and had endometrial cancer and had hysterectomy when they're like 30 so if you lose your periods make sure you get it checked out okay so I'm just consuming all of that it's great because you need the background we have spoken a lot about endometriosis before and one of the things like I don't have endometriosis and I found the conversation really interesting because I know a lot of women who do but I couldn't quite understand why it's so painful but now obviously since we've done that research I kind of I get it and I understand it more is PCOS something that people would suffer with pain with like is it something that's painful

or is it quite different to endometriosis in that way? Completely different. So PCOS, super common, one in 10. Endometriosis, one in 10 people. You're going to have people that have both. Wow. But no, it's not a painful condition. It's those signs that I talked about,

which would be the indicators that you've got polycystic ovarian syndrome. You could have like a ruptured ovarian cyst that would be really painful and maybe that risk is slightly increased with polycystic ovarian syndrome, but no, the condition itself isn't painful. With these women that are not having their period,

they're not getting enough progesterone to balance the endometrium and then they end up with endometrial cancer just for everybody listening can that also happen for the people that are getting their period their body is allowing it but they're skipping the period on the pill so the people that are just actually saying i don't want it now could this endometrial cancer come from that or is does your body actually have to be not producing it yes so i'll just quickly explain again with a bit of a hormone menstrual cycle school so we only release progesterone after we ovulate. The progesterone comes from the little part of the ovary called the corpus luteum where the egg comes from. So if you're not ovulating, you can't make

progesterone. And what gets tricky is some people can actually have a period even though they haven't ovulated, often quite heavy because the progesterone normally thins that lining a little bit. So the pill is completely different. So the pill is synthetic estrogen and progesterone in a combined tablet. That's why it's called the combined oral contraceptive pill. that turns off the messages from the brain to the ovary because you're getting enough hormones and you're getting the progesterone that's thinning the lining of the endometrium so no the pill definitely does not cause that same risk and the pill actually decreases your risk of ovarian cancer by 40 we often hear a lot of fear and worry about the pill and the pill will often be

prescribed in polycystic ovarian syndrome and it's a shame because some people go to their gp and that we diagnosed with PCOS and they're like, here you go, lose some weight, here's the pill. And that is the appointment over. And that sucks because someone doesn't have things explained. Pill is really good in polycystic ovarian syndrome because it's turning off those messages from the pituitary to the ovaries. The ovaries aren't making those elevated androgens. So it's really good for the acne and the hair growth. It also increases a protein that binds some of those extra hormones. And the other thing with the pill is it protects the endometrium. So we actually use the pill in PCOS to prevent that endometrial hyperplasia which is that pre-endometrial

cancer. So it's like if you I guess like for a lot of people and I think that this is one of the myths with the pill itself is that people go on it and I know for myself I went on it when I was like 15 years old for so long and then when I came off it I was like oh I have all these issues and a lot of people have the perception that the issues have been created by the pill whereas whereas the pill may have actually been masking those issues. A hundred percent. And often incorrectly, the pill is labeled as associated with infertility. And it's just what you said. Someone goes on when they're 15 and then they go off when they're 30 and they're like, I want to have a baby. And they haven't had those menstrual cycles to know if

they were regular, you know, did they have normal space, all those things. So they haven't had that normal sign telling them that they've got a normal menstrual cycle and no big warning signs about fertility so it does mask well it treats the symptoms of PCOS so it does mask it it also sometimes can you know people have severe endometriosis it might suppress their symptoms which is also why we use it as a treatment but I say to people if you know you definitely want to have a baby you know at one point and you've been on the pill when you're 15 it's not a bad idea to go off it and just make sure everything's looking you know normal and because we can't test your hormones when you're on the pill so I can't test you for PCOS I can't test you for other

fertility problems when someone's on the pill. So instead of just waiting until you're ready like okay now I want to have a baby let's go for it at least having that forward planning so you know that maybe if you're in your 20s and you know you want to have kids one day even if it's not now taking that agency to take a break to figure out what your reproductive organs and everything else is going on so that way when it comes to the day that you want to have a kid you know that everything's in a working order and you've dealt with those issues earlier rather than leaving it to the last minute. Yeah. And PCOS is so common. So yeah, it's not a bad idea. Obviously I'm not going to say to people, Hey, go off your pill as long as you use condoms, be really careful.

But yeah, exactly. And also cause the pill and even as well, even people that don't have PCOS, they go off the pill and they get a bit hairier and they're like, Oh my goodness. Like to the pill. I'm just hairy in general guys. But it's because, you know, normally it's the male hormones even without PCOS, we all have a little bit of testosterone. People often notice their libido is better when they're off the pill and that's because we've got more testosterone, it will mean you might have a bit more body hair when you go off the pill. I do love what you said there. Correct me if I'm wrong for the statistics that you said the pill can actually help reduce the chance of ovarian cancer by 40%. Yeah. So the more times we ovulate, the bigger our risk of

ovarian cancer is. And I actually stayed on the pill for like seven years just because I wanted this. If we're on the pill for five consecutive years, it decreases our lifetime risk of ovarian cancer by about 40%. That is huge. I don't think a lot of people know that. We always hear about, oh, it causes breast cancer, which I'll just, how about I just briefly summarize. So the breast cancer risk, it does increase your risk of breast cancer by about 20%. That's only whilst you're on the pill. And we need to think about what the risk of a 25 year old is of breast cancer. It's like super, super low. So let's say her risk is like one in 10,000. That's like 0.001. we're making it 0.0012 so in our risk of something is really low you know increasing that risk only

is slightly increasing our absolute risk and that's called relative versus absolute risk and for people you know without a background in statistics but just you know most people it sounds really scary like 20% increased risk of breast cancer but if your risk is only 0.001 making 0.0012 is not that much whereas ovarian cancer that's a lifelong risk reduction so the risk with the pill is on breast cancer is only when you're on it that ovarian cancer is lifelong and for me you can't screen for ovarian cancer and that really scares me so the pill does also slightly decrease risk of bowel cancer as well so it's probably got a really bad reputation and there are some you know side effects it increases risk of depression by about one percent some

people just feel absolutely terrible on the pill but there are some you know really good parts about it and then you know medications aren't good or bad i say it's all about the situation Benefit exceeding risk. Yeah, and like cancer medications make people feel absolutely rotten, but they can kill cancer. So you wouldn't say that's bad. So I think it's all about, you know, the situation and the person. Well, I could talk to you nonstop about that, but let's get back on to,

because I mean, this whole thing, the whole reproductive system, our hormones, everything is so fascinating because every woman goes through it. But is there a difference between PCOS and polycystic ovaries? Because I thought that polycystic ovaries meant PCOS. Such a good question. and this is one really important because I think a lot of people have been incorrectly diagnosed with PCOS. So, PCO, polycystic ovaries, is literally just the appearance we see on ultrasound and you're a radiographer, weren't you? Yes. So, that is the appearance on ultrasound and

super normal in young women who are only like a few years, five to 10 years after their first period. It's not diagnostic of polycystic ovarian syndrome. You need to have those two of those three criteria we talked about. So, you know, the signs, the acne or the irregular period. So, those ovarian features themselves aren't diagnostic. If somebody leaves it, apart from just this increase in endometrial cancer, what are the other symptoms that someone would have? Like if someone left PCOS untreated for say five, 10, whatever years, and they weren't on the pill, what would be the things that they would need to look out for? This is a really good question because PCOS, the management and the things we think about really depend on the patient and their kind of

age group. So, you know, young women not wanting to fall pregnant, it's probably more the skin, the body, hair, those type of things. And we haven't really talked about the underlying cause of PCOS, which is generally really high levels of insulin. And it's the insulin that causes the muck up in the communication from the brain to the ovaries. High levels of insulin makes it hard to lose weight, hungry, fatigued. Then the skin, the hair, those type of things. For women in maybe more around their 30s, it's often fertility. I feel like the only time I've ever heard of insulin spoken about is in terms of diabetes. How does it affect PCOS? Yes. So insulin resistance is like pre-diabetes. So if we need glucose, which is our primary source

of, you know, fuel, our brains need it. I love carbohydrates. They're so important for us to function. I love carbs too. Yeah. I'm definitely. You're amongst good company. Fresh sourdough any day. Yeah. We need insulin to get glucose inside our cells. If a combination of genetics or environmental causes the insulin can't get inside our cells unless we've got lots more insulin so it means our cells are less sensitive to insulin so insulin levels start to increase we call that insulin resistance when the blood sugar levels are still normal and once it goes over and you just keep making insulin but the glucose won't go inside our cells that's when we see type 2 diabetes and it's the type 2 diabetes which is kind of related to

the PCOS and the insulin resistance. I just wanted to circle back for a second in terms of something that you mentioned earlier in regards to endometriosis and you said that it's common to have both or someone who could have both at the same time are they at all linked is there a case where people have if you have PCOS you're more inclined to have endometriosis or vice versa or are they just completely separate issues and unfortunately some women suffer from both completely separate issues so we know endometriosis also familial related there's still a lot of research about what is the underlying cause driving it but polycystic ovarian syndrome are yet completely separate but people will potentially have both just because of how common

they are. And I think it's interesting because like me coming from a background where I don't have either and I don't know much about them I had always thought I had kind of always just chucked them in the same basket I was like oh yeah I know about endometriosis and I guess some people who had that also have PCOS because I do think that sometimes the conversations had hand in hand but I didn't realize that they were very independent of each other. I think it's interesting because women's health has generally been terribly researched maybe apart from breast cancer and they're two conditions that have not been properly understood or well respected by their medical system why do you think that is we could go into like a history of medicine lecture

but i think women's pain is not taken seriously we've had studies that show women who present with chest pain are less likely to be investigated for a heart attack women that have abdominal pain are less likely to receive appropriate analgesia i think that's because we think women are hysterical like the word hysterectomy which is you know taking out the uterus was because they thought the uterus was what made women hysterical wow yes it's all sorts of levels so it's like women probably with like quite complex mental health disorders would had their uterus taken out because it must have been what was made them female which was making them hysterical so i think that's just a really good example of the underlying sexism and lack of respect for women's complaints in

medical. Surely we could change the term hysterectomy now in this day and age, now that we know where it stems from. Don't you think that also then reflects and say like the rebates and Medicare and the way that people can get subsidies for these sorts of issues? Like for somebody who has PCOS and has to go through treatment or have, and we'll get into what treatment is in a second, but what are the benefits that someone is allowed access to or what help is there for people who have PCOS? That's a great question because so many people that I speak to say they get the diagnosis they're told to kind of lose weight and do some exercise and here's the pill and come back and see me when you want to fall pregnant. I'm not a GP so I don't generally see people with PCOS

unless maybe they're trying to fall pregnant or there's other things associated with it and I just work in public probably in the private system there is more people just seeing the endocrinologist for PCOS but what kind of services are available you could speak to your GP I don't think it would meet criteria for a chronic disease management plan which would mean you know publicly funded referrals for an exercise physiologist or dietitian it's not good I think endometriosis has got a lot more attention mainly due to like you know some celebrities doing really good work in advocacy but PCOS has a long way to go and I think you know and as well it's associated with weight gain there's so much weight stigma that would be a podcast for a whole other episode talking about

the obscene you know weight stigma and bias in the healthcare system as well whether that's also something related to it as well but i i often do think if there was a condition that affected one in 10 men was associated with infertility as if there would not be more you know they would be getting paid to go and get their treatment it would be all we're talking about wouldn't it they'd get whatever they want i mean i still come back to the fact that viagra didn't have gst on it but tampons did. So anyway, Viagra has caused so many people to die and it's still like a medication, but like Viagra kills like hundreds or maybe thousands of men per year. Really adding a new definition to making them stiff, isn't it? Yeah, literally dead in the ground. This is not

funny. We shouldn't be joking about this stuff. But what is the, okay, Izzy, what is the correlation between PCOS and a level of infertility? Like I want people out there to not be firstly, if they have it to think, oh my God, I'm never having a child. But also if there is quite a high level that it is correlated that they need to say, okay, maybe I do need to go and speak to someone and just put some things in place. So it kind of depends on if you're quite lean with PCOS or maybe your BMR is a bit elevated and you could lose around five to 10% body weight. But the main thing is improving that insulin sensitivity. So that is dietary changes, low GI types of food. I'm not a dietician, but we talk about decreasing. I don't want low carb because going really low

carb keto, that actually worsens insulin resistance, but moderating how much carbohydrates you're having and having really good carbohydrates, lots of veggies, lean proteins, healthy diet, exercise. There's all these different studies about what's the best type of exercise. Is it more high intensity? Is it more longer duration cardio? I always say, whichever exercise you like is probably the best one because that's the one you're going to actually do, but probably best evidence for kind of longer duration type cardio rather than the high like hit stuff then so after lifestyle is you know medications and they're looking at trying to improve that insulin sensitivity metformin is you know usually first line that's a medication we use in type 2 diabetes

so metformin is a tablet that people take basically and is it a daily treatment or just a once a day tablet then there's also some supplements that people can use spearmint tea actually acts as an anti-androgen and i always love giving people some kind of more natural type treatments that they can do help people feel more you know empowered with the you know treatment option so spearmint tea and then there's some supplements i can never say it properly guys i had dyslexia as a child by the way and have had done so much use of speech as a bit um inositol inositol which is a supplement as well we were looking at this as well and we were like we don't know how to say that inositol we will we're like izzy will know yeah i'll be honest he's like i'm dyslexic i don't

know no not dyslexic i had an audit speech therapy problem so yeah a little bit of dyslexia i've done a lot of speech pathology over the year so if you have you know an auditory processing problem you can definitely become a doctor don't worry you can be like me genius don't worry you just won't be able to prescribe in a site since oh god you'll just have to write it down yeah no i am i'm a very visual person so yeah so supplements then if people so we give metformin especially if someone's trying to fall pregnant because we're not going to put them on the pill because we want to get back that you know that cycle and it's like what we talked about younger people it's more the symptoms maybe around our age group more fertility and then after that it's looking at the risk

factors associated with PCOS which is the metabolic stuff you know cardiovascular risk diabetes preventing them so also a little bit of weight loss can be beneficial for people with you know maybe a higher BMI and a five to ten percent weight loss so maybe you know three four kilos that can actually really improve your insulin sensitivity then for actual treatments for fertility we use this one called Clomid and Letrozole and they're actually decreasing how much estrogen is there and that's trying to lower the estrogen levels enough to stimulate the right messages from the pituitary for ovulation to occur and usually I find that's really effective and people with PCOS don't need you know very rarely should need IVF because the eggs actually

are good you've got lots of eggs it's just about getting one to come out. I think there is a lot of fear for when people are diagnosed with PCOS or told that they have PCOS that they think instantly, I'm not going to be able to have kids or I'm going to be infertile. What would you say to someone who is your patient who comes in and that's their fear? What's the response to that? The first thing is like PCOS is not a lifelong diagnosis. I have patients that go into PCOS and then they, you know, get really good with their regular exercise, dietary changes, you know, maybe COVID happens, the gym shuts, we're spending more time watching TV, I'm getting takeaway and then they go back into PCOS. So it's not like a you've got this for life.

it's a condition that can people can go back and forth between and you can reverse a little bit like type 2 diabetes is there ever anyone though that could do all the right exercise have the most impeccable diet and there's it's not going to change anything their pcos is there to stay and i think this is so important because especially with our focus on kind of lifestyle and natural health which i think is really good there's a lot of great parts about how much healthier our generation is coming but it can become a little bit unhealthy when we fall into the trap of we are completely in control of our own health because we're not like so much is due to genetics and bad luck and some people can do absolutely everything right and they should never feel shame

or that they have failed because let's say they can't get their periods back naturally and it breaks my heart because I do get you know lots of messages on Instagram or patients that feel like they've done something wrong and like they're personally at fault so I'm As I said, this can be really genetic. I've had patients with PCOS that have like a BMI of like 18 or even underweight. And that's probably, they've got a slight genetic mutation with the insulin receptors and, you know, sensitivity. So people can do everything right and it might not be enough. So there are treatment options, especially fertility is what people are, you know, after. And that's why, you know, we do lifestyle first and then it's, you know, medications and

it's not one or the other, it's putting them both together. If somebody does think that they could have pcos what is your advice to them what's the first step go to the gp yeah so it's really basic blood tests so important to have some other conditions ruled out so there's one called congenital adrenal hyperplasia probably only going to be excluded by an endocrinologist it's pretty rare but we always exclude that you're in low thyroid function super common checking elevated levels of prolactin so essentially you go you get some blood tests you exclude other things that could be PCOS you get your male hormones checked then also looking at getting a pelvic ultrasound you know the best views are through like a intra vaginal so there is a probe it's over and done

within a second we look at the ovaries we have a look at the lining of the endometrium and that's really beneficial especially if it's a bit unsure what the diagnosis is if someone's got you know the thicker lining of the endometrium versus very thin so that's important and you'd go from there so you'd get the diagnosis you know exclude the other things and then work on the management so firstly thank you so much for bringing up these topics it's so great that so many people are going to be listening to this i know i love and hate medicine no i love medicine but i really hate medicine i love medicine come and see me i love medicine but i hate that i can only work with my individual patients and it's really exciting to be sharing this information just

the final thing i was going to say if you have a health problem you know especially if it's PCOS or other kind of female reproductive related problem, see a GP with an interest in it. You know, GPs, it's such a diverse thing. They need to know about absolutely everything and they're not specialists, so they can't know in depth. And it's really crap. The government doesn't, you know, Medicare rebate them properly for all of this explaining, the understanding, the education. So see a doctor with an interest in the area. Google search, you know, ask the GP, do you have an interest in this? And it's that teamwork thing. You really got to work with them. Dr. Izzy, thank you so much for coming and being a part of the podcast. Thank you for sharing

your absolute wealth of knowledge. You do, Izzy, have an Instagram page that is full of so much amazing information. Do you want to just tell everyone where they can find you if they want to know more? Sure. It's Dr, spelt the whole word, Izzy K. Smith. Dr. Izzy K. Smith. Great. I've been on the page. It's a wealth of information. Lots of stuff on Peacock. All right. You know that we never finish an episode without our suck and our sweet, our highlight and our low light of each and every week and pretty hotly do you want to kick it off with your sucky suck sucky yeah do you know what i was just trying to think of my suck because i always live to the last minute you know i really want it to be we literally it's like we're about to do suck and sweet and

brit goes what was my song for the week because i like to keep it very current so maybe my suck happened 10 minutes ago i need to wait till the very last minute to think about it i have a suck that i haven't even told you about yet laura what happened it just hit me now i was gonna say look sometimes it just comes out of nowhere like a bullet a gate leave it to the last minute you You never know what's going to happen. I was going to say my suck was that I didn't get to see my mum on Mother's Day. I couldn't get up to Port Macquarie, but I'll be seeing her in a few weeks.

But then this one just hit me, and this is so much better. I had a date this week. Yep. I had my first. Brittany Huckley's back on the market. Well, I tried, Laura. This is where it's going. Wait, is this a date?

You don't know about this. Is this a date with the person who you've gone on a couple of dates with? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So everyone, just so you know, Brittany's been on a few dates with the same person. Yeah, but like a miniscule amount, like very miniscule amount. All right, all right. Anyway. Hopefully he doesn't hear that.

No, well, he will not hear about it now. Anyway, we had organised a date and we had had a crazy busy week and we'd done a lot of recording. Laura and I had been in a recording studio all day. that's why I still sound like I've been deep throating some sandpaper yeah we had a six hour day of non-stop talking and then I he had and then we had to record this person that I have been the only person I have been on a date with said you know what I'll take you to dinner on Friday night and I was like great he's like you've had a pretty hectic week and I was like yes let's be

front out he's like I'll take you on a great dinner I was like great so Friday comes didn't think about it I mean no I did think about it I wasn't going to text him about it so I raced home after this because I was like, got to get home, got to get ready. I'm sure he's just going to message me the time and the place or pick me up or whatever, because that's how I imagine people do dates. I get home, I quickly get showered, I get ready, nothing. Seven o'clock comes, nothing. I text him and I'm like, hey, what's, you know, where you at or what's happening? What are you up to? And he sent me a picture back, a photo of takeaway with his friends watching a movie. He's like oh nothing I've just finished dinner and we're watching a movie with the boys and I was

like what I was like he's like what are you doing and I was like waiting for you I said literally I said I'm waiting for you he's like huh I'm confused I said me too I was like I'm waiting for the dinner that you said you would take he was like oh my god I completely forgot he forgot well he goes I forgot I said Friday night I just thought I said over the weekend and I was and anyway he he stood me up that was it he was beside himself apologizing he's like I genuinely he's like I actually I feel so bad my mouth is fucking open I know you got stood up yeah and I mean I'm not for what he says not intentionally he was like can you what like why don't we watch a movie or something now like and I just said forget it that's what I wrote yeah of course I would have

been the same thing I'd have been so dirty you soft boy actually okay that's a new term I've just learned it's not a fuck boy it's a soft boy it's if they're like kind of emotionally sensitive but then start doing fuck boy things like that anyway it was pretty funny like it was in all honesty I'm laughing it was fine like it was a genuine mistake yeah cool it was cute like love getting and doing my makeup and getting ready for a date then sitting at home on my own totally I just wanted to take away and watch the movie anyway my sweet was I did you end up seeing him then over the weekend negative no I did for a coffee yeah actually I did yeah I think if someone stands you up on a nighttime date you've got to punish them with a daytime date where they're not

getting laid fuck you it's breakfast now but i was like yeah you gotta you get decaf coffee you don't even get a caffeinated coffee uh my sweet was i i had a little friends farewell so i went out on saturday night and i hit the d floor my knees are paying for it the next day i'm a bit old now but it was a really fun night it was just nice to be out with my friends again acute and back out so wholesome I also feel like now that I know it's kind of even weird to like think about or talk about that whole COVID thing that happened where we didn't go and leave our house for four and a half months I know you think and now it's a real effort I'm like oh it's so easy to stay inside no it's just like for me because obviously having kids and they're both

so little still I don't really get out very often it's not like I can't even tell you the last time that I went out dancing which just sounds funny now but like the whole idea of actually leaving the house and people are able to socialize and do stuff i mean what a novelty well what's your suck okay my suck for the week is that it was mother's day on the weekend and that my children both of them woke up and they chose violence from the minute that they woke up they were like today's the day for drama i have never i shouldn't say i've never like i have but they were both just on their worst behavior it's like oh today's mom's day so we're gonna make sure that it's fucking terrible for her they just screamed all day there was actually one point where marley had

tantrum in the middle of the road laid down safe laid down on her stomach in the middle of the road what do you even do rip her up by one arm just yeah you're like like well for a minute there i was like if you keep this up you can stay here and i was like that's very irresponsible there's a truck coming you cannot stay here but it just felt like and i know that like if you're a mom you'll understand this there's just some days that no matter what you ask them to do they want to do the complete opposite. Like you could say, I made, they'll be like, do you want cereal? Or do you want toast? They'll say they want cereal. Then you'll make them cereal. Then they'll scream at the cereal. Then you'll say, you need to put your shoes on. And they'll say that I want to

wear shoes today. And it was literally just every single thing they fought me on. You couldn't ever win. Yeah, no, I didn't. I lost anyway. But the one thing I did win and my sweet for the week was also mother's day. And that was because Matt was such an angel. I thought he'd forgotten. I kind of made a joke the night before. Cause I was like, I know that you haven't got me anything, but if even if you don't get me anything just get me a card well he did his little radio tribute to you if you guys haven't heard the radio show he called up with Marley and they left a little message he did that is on I cried about you didn't I didn't even cry but if you if you haven't listened to the radio show that is literally the episode before this in the podcast so if you want

to jump on there and listen to that but I woke up in the morning he let me sleep in it was nine o'clock and I got up and the kids were already like up awake out of the house he got a beautiful bunch of flowers they're sitting on the table and he just wrote me the nicest letter like a proper letter he penned a letter to me guys and it was better than any present it was really sweet and like gucci yeah i mean a letter or deal no but it was just really nice i mean i guess like sometimes when you're in the fog of parenting you don't get to like have those moments to connect always and like it's just really nice to kind of i don't know i think that there's such such a sentimental thing that goes into writing a letter and writing how you feel about someone and it was very special

and I loved it. Oh, well, I'm very happy for you. The end. Anyway, guys, that is it from us. We hope that you loved the episode. We hope you learned something. If you know someone who has PCOS or you think that some of the symptoms

or things that we've spoken about will resonate with someone who you love, send them this podcast episode. Recommend it to your friends. Recommend it to all your female friends who will get something out of it. Also to your male friends who don't understand the female reproductive system

and maybe need a hand. How many holes are there? Who knows? I think it's three, but the jury's still out. But also, if you have any questions for Ask Uncut, you can slide on into the DMs with your questions. You could also join the Facebook discussion group.

That is where all of the juicy conversations go down. If you have anything that you want to throw out and cast out to the lifers of this community. We have to rush off now because we are heading over to Warner's Music. We have an amazing little interview we're doing there that we'll be dropping in the coming weeks. So that is very exciting. We'll let you ponder on that one for a little while.

It's Jessica Mowboy. mate you do not understand the you do not understand what a teaser is okay it's still a teaser i don't have the content yet we actually really do need to run we're gonna be late to meet her we can't be late so guys please tell your mom tell your dad tell your friends and share the love because we love love We'll be right back.