From the Vault - Endometriosis: Menstrual Backwash (Ep 88)

This Podcast Will Kill You

Exactly Right and iHeartPodcasts

Health & Fitness, Science

4.8 • 17.1K Ratings

🗓️ 30 December 2025

⏱️ 132 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This episode originally aired on January 11th, 2022.

Chances are you know someone with endometriosis, or perhaps you’re affected yourself. But despite its incredibly high prevalence, endo remains almost criminally understudied, undertreated, and underacknowledged. In this episode, we aim to shed light on many aspects of endometriosis, first by examining the “what” and “how” of this disease: what’s actually going on inside your body with endometriosis and how does it cause the symptoms that it does? Then we turn our sights to the why, exploring not only the possible evolutionary origins of this disease but also the deep historical roots contributing to the struggle many people still face today in obtaining a diagnosis. We discuss how although hysteria is no longer a valid medical diagnosis, it has left its mark on medicine in the form of implicit bias that leaves many people feeling unlistened to and unbelieved. We then wrap up the episode with a look at endometriosis by the numbers and some current research that leaves us feeling slightly more hopeful about the growing awareness of this disease and the need for effective treatments.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is exactly right.
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0:10.7	I'm Michael Foote. And I'm Melissa Malbranche, and we've got a brand new show called Brief Recess, Illegal Podcast.
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0:41.2	Today we're going to be talking about stolen antiquities, all the weird things Melissa found at in a state sale, the crazy conversations I had with the bouncer and J.K. Rowling. We make the complicated clear and the serious, surprisingly fun. From the exactly right network, new episodes of Brief Recess drop every Thursday. Watch Brief Recess on YouTube. Listen to Brief Recess on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
0:48.1	Hi there. Aaron and Aaron here. We recorded this episode on endometriosis back in January of 2022, and it was really the first time that we had covered a topic like this. Yeah. This episode has stayed with us, and it's usually our first answer when someone asks us what our
0:58.3	favorite episode is.
1:00.1	It is.
1:01.2	We are especially grateful to Susie, who provided the firsthand account which resonated with
1:06.5	us and with so many of you.
1:09.3	Earlier this year, Susie's husband reached out to us to let us know that Susie had passed away
1:14.1	in September of 2024 due to complications from cancer.
1:18.5	We are heartbroken for her family and her loved ones, and we remain eternally grateful
1:24.4	for her vulnerability and willingness to share her story.
1:29.8	Hi, my name is Susie Solaviv. From a pretty young age, I taught myself not to pay a lot of
1:37.1	attention to my body. When I was younger, I didn't really have any issues, but after puberty,
1:43.6	I started to have pretty bad cramps.
1:46.4	I had to go to the bathroom fairly often.
1:49.5	And I also found out that I was anemic, and I would occasionally, if I was exercising too hard, start to black out.
1:57.2	Nobody really had a good explanation for this, and nobody really directed me to a doctor or anything.
2:03.4	So I just ignored it and move forward.
2:07.5	Lots of other people in my high school had period cramps.
	...

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