Bloody Hard Conversations... with Katie Murray

The Cost of Period 'Banter' in the Workplace

Workplace banter, menstruation, and neurodivergence. I'm talking about the real cost of jokes that get dressed up as harmless, specifically the kind that use hormones as a punchline. In this episode... * What's actually happening when a woman gets written off as 'moody' or 'probably on her period' * Why banter is a particular minefield for neurodivergent people * What you can actually do when you find yourself in that room, whether it happened to you or someone else No one's identity, body, or brain should ever be the material for a joke. This one's for anyone who's ever sat in stony silence whilst the room laughed. Helpful Links... 📖 Read the transcript here [https://samanthagarstin.com/the-cost-of-period-banter-in-the-workplace/].  🟦 Connect with me on ⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/samanthagarstin/]LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/samanthagarstin/]⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/samanthagarstin/]for daily insights 🌶️ ND friends, grab your SpicyTrait Mapper [https://samanthagarstin.com/tt] and start spotting your own patterns. 🩸 Not-so-spicy? Download the Cycle Harmony Mapper [https://samanthagarstin.com/ch] instead. 💌 ⁠⁠ [https://samanthagarstin.com/nl/]Subscribe to The Period Press⁠ [https://samanthagarstin.com/nl/]⁠ [https://samanthagarstin.com/nl/] Written editions drop every Sunday at 5 am, ready for coffee in bed at 10!

How to Exercise With Your Menstrual Cycle (Not Against It)

Ever wondered why your fitness routine feels completely different depending on where you are in your menstrual cycle? If you've ever yeeted your trainers into the bin mid-routine, this one's for you. In this episode... * Why moving cyclically works better than a fixed fitness routine * How to exercise with your menstrual cycle across all four phases * What "no pain, no gain" does to a spicy brain (spoiler: nothing good) * How neurodivergence changes the way each phase feels in your body * Why ovulation isn't always the green light it's made out to be * The one question worth asking yourself every morning instead of following a plan Mentioned in the episode - A Year of Cyclical Running - What I Learned [https://samanthagarstin.com/a-year-of-cyclical-running-what-i-learned/] Helpful Links... 📖 Read the transcript here [https://samanthagarstin.com/exercise-with-your-menstrual-cycle/].  🟦 Connect with me on ⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/samanthagarstin/]LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/samanthagarstin/]⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/samanthagarstin/]for daily insights 🌶️ ND friends, grab your SpicyTrait Mapper [https://samanthagarstin.com/tt] and start spotting your own patterns. 🩸 Not-so-spicy? Download the Cycle Harmony Mapper [https://samanthagarstin.com/ch] instead. 💌 ⁠⁠ [https://samanthagarstin.com/nl/]Subscribe to The Period Press⁠ [https://samanthagarstin.com/nl/]⁠ [https://samanthagarstin.com/nl/] Written editions drop every Sunday at 5 am, ready for coffee in bed at 10!

HRT, Perimenopause and ADHD - Using Cycle Mapping for Self-Advocacy

Ever wondered why perimenopause hits so much harder when you have a spicy brain? In this episode, I'm sharing my own HRT journey, including what two years of cycle mapping data revealed, how ADHD and oestrogen are more connected than most people realise, and how I walked into a GP appointment armed with evidence and got exactly what I asked for. If you've ever felt fobbed off, dismissed, or like you're asking for too much, this one's for you. In this episode: perimenopause and ADHD, oestrogen and dopamine, cycle mapping for self-advocacy, body-identical HRT, neurodivergent traits and hormonal shifts, NICE guidelines, gender pain gap Helpful Links... 📖 Read the transcript ⁠here⁠ [https://samanthagarstin.com/?p=24675&preview=true].  🟦 Connect with me on ⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/samanthagarstin/]⁠LinkedIn ⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/samanthagarstin/]⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/samanthagarstin/]for daily insights 🌶️ ND friends, grab your ⁠SpicyTrait Mapper⁠ [https://samanthagarstin.com/tt] and start spotting your own patterns. 🩸 Not-so-spicy? Download the ⁠Cycle Harmony Mapper⁠ [https://samanthagarstin.com/ch] instead. 💌 ⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://samanthagarstin.com/nl/]⁠Subscribe to The Period Press⁠⁠ [https://samanthagarstin.com/nl/]⁠⁠⁠ [https://samanthagarstin.com/nl/] Written editions drop every Sunday at 5 am, ready for coffee in bed at 10!

Bloody Hard Conversations... with Katie Murray

Katie Murray [https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-jo-copywriter-hr/] is a former HR professional turned specialist HR copywriter. She helps HR people find the right words for the change they're trying to make. She also wrote a guest blog for me about flooding and clotting from her own experience. (Yes, that Katie. The HR copywriting lady. Writing about periods. Because of course she did.) So I knew I had to have her on. Because so often the barrier to better menstrual health at work isn't knowledge, it's language. You can learn stuff from the internet. But how do you actually start talking about it openly? How do you say it out loud, to the right person, without it feeling impossible? So we're going to talk about... 🩸 Why finding the right words is half the battle 🩸 What stops people from saying what they actually mea 🩸 And why half the problem is not talking to the right person in the first place Oh, and we will absolutely be touching on her flooding story. Because it wouldn't be The Bloody Truth if we didn't talk about periods. Helpful Links... 🟦 Connect with me on ⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/samanthagarstin/]LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/samanthagarstin/]⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/samanthagarstin/]for daily insights 🌶️ ND friends, grab your SpicyTrait Mapper [https://samanthagarstin.com/tt] and start spotting your own patterns. 🩸 Not-so-spicy? Download the Cycle Harmony Mapper [https://samanthagarstin.com/ch] instead. 💌 ⁠⁠ [https://samanthagarstin.com/nl/]Subscribe to The Period Press⁠ [https://samanthagarstin.com/nl/]⁠ [https://samanthagarstin.com/nl/] Written editions drop every Sunday at 5 am, ready for coffee in bed at 10!

What the Pill Actually Does to Your Hormones (And What Nobody Told You)

Ever wondered what the pill is actually doing to your hormones? Because it's probably not what you were told. In this episode... * Why the pill creates a synthetic cycle and what that actually means for your hormones * The difference between a withdrawal bleed and a real period * Why the pill doesn't balance your hormones, and what it does instead * The myth-busting history of how the pill was first prescribed * How hormonal contraception can mask early perimenopause symptoms * Why cycle mapping still matters on hormonal birth control, especially if you're neurodivergent or managing a chronic condition Helpful Links... 📖 Read the transcript here [https://samanthagarstin.com/what-the-pill-does-to-your-hormones/].  🟦 Connect with me on ⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/samanthagarstin/]LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/samanthagarstin/]⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/samanthagarstin/]for daily insights 🌶️ ND friends, grab your SpicyTrait Mapper [https://samanthagarstin.com/tt] and start spotting your own patterns. 🩸 Not-so-spicy? Download the Cycle Harmony Mapper [https://samanthagarstin.com/ch] instead. 💌 ⁠⁠ [https://samanthagarstin.com/nl/]Subscribe to The Period Press⁠ [https://samanthagarstin.com/nl/]⁠ [https://samanthagarstin.com/nl/] Written editions drop every Sunday at 5 am, ready for coffee in bed at 10!