Hello and welcome to Zoe Recap, where each week we find the best bits from one of our podcast episodes to help you improve your health.

Today we're tackling menstruation.

Despite affecting half the world's population for a significant part of their lives, menstruation remains clouded by taboo.

This lack of open conversation can leave women

without the knowledge they need to address pain, discomfort or irregularities associated with their period.

So what signs should raise concerns when it comes to menstruation and how can we manage symptoms

effectively? I'm joined by Professor Sarah Berry and Dr. Jen Gunter to break the silence around

menstruation. Jen starts by outlining the signs of a heavy period. If you are soaking through

your menstrual products onto your clothes, if you're having to change pads or tampons every one to

two hours for more than just kind of once,

so if you have to do that. Or if when you stand up, you have a feeling of gushing. So all of those

things can be signs of heavy periods. Sometimes they're not, but you don't know. But those would be

all the signs that would say, you know, you should probably see your doctor and be investigated.

And the reason this is so critical is if

if you look at the incidence of iron deficiency, it is very high amongst young women. And in the

United States, the study I'm referencing is from the U.S. So I don't know if the data is the same in other

countries. 40% of women ages 22 and younger are iron deficient.

It's similar prevalence in the UK.

40% under 22 do you say are iron deficient? That's extraordinary.

It is and it's often dismissed because people can have iron deficiency and not have

anemia. And often people are told if they don't have anemia, they don't need to

worry about it, but that is incorrect. And iron deficiency itself is a medical condition with

...