Overlooked is a podcast about women's health which features immersive personal storytelling in each episode. Subscribe to the newsletter to learn more about the guests and topics the show covers, and to hear about live podcast tapings and other events.
*New episode* The migraine & hormones connection
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Do you know the difference between 'migraine' and 'migraines'? It’s not a semantic point - apparently doctors now refer to it as ‘migraine’ because it is a complex set of symptoms which are collectively considered a chronic disease. Maybe you heard my friend and collaborator Sally Herships talk about those symptoms, in the episode we did earlier this year - a visceral description of an all-over body condition, nausea, pain, headache and more, through her powerful audio diaries. Many of you told me that this was an important episode. Another friend, Courtney Martin, recently sent me a voice memo and asked for a follow-up episode: what is the connection between migraine and hormones, anyway, she asked. And does perimenopause make it worse? That follow-up is here: my conversation with Dr Rashmi B.Halker Singh, a migraine specialist from the Mayo Clinic. This episode is migraine & hormones 101, and covers the estrogen connection, migraine in puberty, pregnancy and perimenopause, and it features information on how a migraine actually starts and treatment options But - sing it with me - We. Need. More. Research. We're still learning about migraine in women and have lots of unanswered questions to dig into.
I want to go beyond this episode and ask you: if you are peri/menopausal, and have migraine - are you on HRT? And how do you manage that? What has worked for you if you've been dealing with hormone-related migraine, and what conversations have you had with your doctor? Tell me all the things. Here's a super nerdy deep dive on migraine and the American Headache Society's resources page. In other news:We are almost at the end of season 5! And to commemorate it, I'm having a virtual open house for Overlooked on Wednesday 10th December at 12 pm EST. There's no real agenda, I thought it'd be nice to say hi to listeners and subscribers and if you want to go behind the scenes a little bit on Overlooked and meet me and my producer Jes, reply to this email with 'open house' and I'll send you a zoom link. What else I'm reading and listening to this week:Some things that didn’t suck in 2025 (really) (Arm and a Leg podcast, which covers the cost of healthcare. Always a relevant topic but especially this week). This machine could keep a baby alive outside the womb. How will the world decide to use it? (The Guardian) The ‘Worst Test in Medicine’ is Driving America’s High C-Section Rate (NYTimes) Wishing you the best of health, Golda
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Overlooked: a women's health podcast
Overlooked is a podcast about women's health which features immersive personal storytelling in each episode. Subscribe to the newsletter to learn more about the guests and topics the show covers, and to hear about live podcast tapings and other events.
The language Cait Reeves uses to describe pain is truly unforgettable. Cait lived with adenomyosis for years before she got a diagnosis, which came about through her determined efforts to get to the bottom of what was causing this intense pain. She used an analogy to describe to her doctor what the pain in her womb felt like: a garden trowel carving out the insides of a pumpkin. Her doctor winced too. Adenomyosis is a condition where the tissue in the lining of the uterus grows into the...
Have I got a story for you If you're a long-time listener of Overlooked you'll remember a little inside joke between me and my mom that we'd make when recording season one. Every time we came across some gnarly, deeply science-y thing, like how PARP inhibitors work in cancer treatment - I would ask mom to explain it to me. And she, being a science major and high school chemistry teacher, would totally nerd out on that explanation. My eyes glazing over, I would wait till she got it out of her...
For most of human history, we've had no choice but to be reactive about preeclampsia. Wait for it to strike, try to detect it as early as possible, and then deliver the baby. Which is why about 70,000 women die from preeclampsia every year globally (in fact that number is probably higher, because in many parts of the world, cases just aren't reported accurately). But things are changing. And the story of what’s changing, and why it’s important, comes from my guest on the show this week, Dr...