Welcome to the Vulvalution!

You’ve been waiting for it — and it’s finally here: the debut of The Vulvalution! 🎉 Meet your hosts, Mathilde and Sabrina — two gals on a mission to make women’s+ health less confusing and a lot more fun. In this episode, we introduce ourselves, share how The Vulvalution was born, and what you can expect from the season ahead.

Transcript

 [00:00:00] Is period pain normal? How long is my menstrual cycle? Why is my period so heavy? Does anyone understand how the birth control pill actually works? Do you still ovulate if you have an IUD? How do I decide which method of birth control is best for me? What's the point of a PAP test? How often should I see gynecologist? Why am I always getting yeast infections? What type of vaginal discharge is normal? Can I use a menstrual cup? If I have an IUD, what's endometriosis? How do I know if I'm in menopause? What is perimenopause and when does it happen? Is hormone replacement therapy safe for me? Do most people go through phases where they're just not that into sex? How can I increase my libido? Why am I struggling to hold my bladder? What's pelvic floor therapy? Does anyone actually know where the clitoris is? Why hasn't anyone taught us this? Welcome to the Vulvalution - the podcast where you can learn everything they never taught us.[00:01:00] 

Welcome to the introduction, the first episode of the Vulvalution podcast. 

Let's goo! Thank you for being here. Thank you for listening or watching wherever you are listening slash from watching right now. Thank you for being here. 

Yeah. I hope you can see, if you're watching on YouTube, you can see our studio. I hope you like it 'cause we worked really hard on it. 

And if you're listening, I hope you're loving this audio quality because we also worked really hard on that. 

Yeah. And we want to thank the WHRI, so the Women's Health Research Institute. 

Yeah. And everyone else who's been supporting the podcast, friends, family. We wouldn't be here today without you today. 

So, what the heck are we doing here? 

Oh my God.

So we've been talking about this project since September, since we started our masters in the women's and children's health [00:02:00] program at UBC. Yeah. 

Yeah. 

We had our first class and we came back and we were just like - Oh my God, I learned so much. And we talked to her roommate and she was like, oh, I also did not know any of that. Yeah. 

Yeah, and everyone else in our life, we'd come back from class and be like, today we learned about endometriosis, or today we learned about the placenta - which is actually an organ of the baby, not the mom - Who knew? 

Yeah. I learned that this year. 

All these things. And we were like, we need to get this information out to the people. And we're so privileged to have access to researchers and clinicians because we're doing our masters in women's health right now. 

And we were like, I guess we're the people to do it.

And we love to gab!

We just always, always yap! 

So we're yapping no matter what. We might as well put it to good use is what we were thinking. And what, like a year later, here we are! 

And hopefully it's gonna be entertaining and funny a little bit. Yeah. 

Yeah. 

We should tell you a bit about what the podcast is about? 

What is the podcast? How is it gonna be different from other podcasts? 

Totally. Yeah. 

[00:03:00] Yeah. So how, what's the podcast? 

Essentially, we want to give you fact-based information and research. So, what the latest research is saying or just general information that you might have forgotten from health class or never been taught properly.

Yeah. But we want to give it to you in a very fun and engaging format. We don't want it to be like something you could just look up on the internet or read a research article on. We want you to basically sit down, throw your headphones in, or throw your laptop on and just absorb while being entertained.

Yeah. And all the information you should know.

Now, because we're not experts in any of the subjects that we're gonna talk about. We are gonna interview researchers and clinicians that have been working on these topics for so long, and they are experts in it. 

So that's gonna be really interesting to have them over and ask the questions and ask also your question. 'cause on our Instagram, we'll have a link in the bio where you can ask questions that you have about the podcast [00:04:00] episode that we're gonna film. So yeah. Hopefully we can answer all of your questions. And then we're also gonna use this to answer our questions too.

Yeah. And learn so much about different topics of women's health that we've never been taught. 

Yeah. And with submitting your questions. There are no stupid questions, so we really wanna know what you wanna know. We don't just want this to be the Me and Matilde show. 

Yeah. 

The Sabrina and Matilde show. We want it to be relevant for you and so you feel like you're actually getting the answers you want to know, so please fill out the what women wanna know, or what people wanna know form. And we will use as many of them as we can in the actual episodes and get fact-based answers from experts who know the answer. 

Yeah. Yeah. And we wanna do a quick maybe clarification about research - so there's no specific answer that's gonna fit everyone, every woman. 

Yeah. I think one example of this is ‘what contraception should I be on’? There's no answer that's one expert can be like [00:05:00] this one for everyone. 

Yeah. But we're gonna give you the most UpToDate research what people know about all of these questions and then and also give you the information so that you can figure out what's best for you. 

What questions should you be asking your family doctor or your nurse practitioner, whoever you're seeing? What things should you be thinking about when making those kinds of decisions? That's just one example, but I think it's important to note that in research we often hope there's gonna be one right answer.

Yeah. And a lot of the cases that's not the case

That would be ideal.

That'd be great. Yeah. We could just say, go on, like everyone should get an IUD or something. Or everyone should be taking all these drugs? 

No, it's not real. We're all different and we're gonna learn that by interviewing researchers and clinicians.

But I think it's important to still know a little bit more about our bodies that we don't really know. Absolutely. And there's so many things to learn and then we can make better decisions on for own health. Yeah. 

I think that's like an underlying goal of the podcast is to [00:06:00] empower you with the information so that you can make your own health decisions. And feel good about them, and they're not just taking only like one person's advice, but that you've asked the right questions and you can leave your appointments or live your life knowing that you're confident in your health decisions. 

Yeah. Yeah. And the episodes are gonna be around 45 minutes.

If we have a lot to say, maybe closer to an hour. But we'll try to make them very concise and clear. Yeah. So that you can just listen to it on your way to work or just when you're doing some task at home or things like that, so it's not too heavy. And just fun to listen to. 

Yeah. And we're aiming for about one episode a month.

We are master students at the moment, and our lives are a little bit busy, so we're aiming for once a month. Yeah. If things get rolling and things get easier. We might up that depending on our flexibility, but you can trust that we'll have once a one at least a month. 

Yeah. Yeah. And we already have some ideas for the first ones, so Yeah.

We've already got some interviews lined up, like [00:07:00] four interviews, guys. We're like really organized right now. 

Yeah. It's gonna be exciting. Yeah.

So like just a bit of what you can expect is that we're gonna start very general: Basic anatomy, basic hormones, basic menstrual cycle. We want everyone to be back on the same page or on the same page maybe for the first time. 

Yeah. About all the basic information so that then we can go into more complex ideas like endometriosis or like PCOS or pregnancy, all these. Future topics or menopause? A big one. Yeah. That it's important to know basic anatomy and basic like hormones in order to understand.

So that's where we're gonna start. It might be a little bit boring, but like it really won't be because we're gonna be entertaining. 

No, and I'm so excited for the one about history of women's in research. Yes. That's gonna be very interesting. Yeah. We're interviewing someone that has a background in anthropology, so it's gonna be more, less science/health, more social science. Yeah. So that'll be really good. 

We've got some really good things in the pipeline, so stay tuned, come back. Don't just listen [00:08:00] to this and then forget about us. 

And then one of the question that we're gonna ask our interviewees is why they decided to go into more women's health research. And maybe we should tell you a little bit more about ourselves and like why we decided to go into that program at UBC. Yeah. Yeah.

I think that also, before we go into that, just so we don't forget, 'cause you've said it just again, I think we wanna make it clear note about terminology. Yeah. So when we're writing women's, we're always writing Women's+ health and that's really 'cause we wanna signify that we're trying to be as inclusive as possible. This podcast is not just for women+, it's really for everyone. And a lot of the content we're talking about won't just be for cis women, but also for trans and non-binary people. So, we just wanna make that clear.

We're trying to be as inclusive as possible, and we'll try our best not to conflate sex and gender. So, when we're talking about things that affect, like female reproductive health or reproductive health in general, we'll try to use that terminology. 

Yes. Yeah. Okay. So tell me about yourself. 

Yeah. Why are you [00:09:00] in women's health?

Oh my God. Okay. So, I decided to go in women's health when I was in undergrad. I started to have hormonal imbalances and I started to do research about it and looked up different contraceptives that I could try, and then I had a really long call with a nurse practitioner and she was explaining all of the options that I could have, and I just asked so many questions and I think she didn't really know the answers. It's not her fault. She's just, it's just so hard to know which one would work best for me. And then, yeah, I just looked at all the research and I was like, oh, there's actually so many gaps in the research about women's health. And it's so interesting 'cause we've had menstrual cycles since the beginning of - since humans started.

Yeah. And it's we don't know that, like we do know a lot. Still like the general population or even the clinicians, they maybe not, they don't know everything about, yeah. What's the research? 

Well, I mean, in med school, I feel like there's very minimal [00:10:00] time given to that. So those, the doctors come out and they. know so much about so much health, but is it really specific to women's health? 

Yeah. 

Most of the time not. 

Yeah. And then as we mentioned, we're all like all women+ are different and they're gonna react to different, differently to different medications and different contraceptives. But anyways, so I was like, that looks really interesting.

I wanna go more into the research side of things and learn a lot more about women's women's health because I don't know much about it. And yeah, that's kind of what brought me there. And then a little bit, I guess about my background is that I did an undergrad in dietetics in Montreal.

So a little French Canadian. If you can hear from my accent, I. And yeah, I guess I just wanted to specialize a little bit more in digestive health for women especially. And so right now I'm doing a research study on the gut microbiome of pregnant women with IBD. So inflammatory bowel disease.

That's a niche [00:11:00] upon niche, upon niche.

Yeah. Extremely specific. We're not gonna really dive into our research that much. No. 

Unless you wanna know, like if you're pregnant and you're, have IBD Mathilde is your gal.

Yeah, we, we might even do an episode on this. Eventually. That could be really interesting. But I am very interested in nutrition and lifestyle. So, we are gonna touch on that for sure. 

Yeah, I think we'll definitely take that lens with a bunch of our interviewees. Yeah. 

Yeah. Okay. What about you, Sabrina? 

Well, I'm Sabrina. First of all, that's my name. Why did I go into women's health? Good question. I think that I originally, so I have a genetic mutation that runs in my family.

It's called a BRCA two mutation. It's a pretty well-known mutation when in regards to increasing breast and ovarian cancer risk. So, I think I grew up thinking a lot about that and thinking a lot about risk in general. And [00:12:00] that definitely drove an interest for me in molecular biology and genetics in general.

So that's what I did my undergrad in. But while I was in that program, I think I just realized a lot about. How many studies were just on males or just male mice or not like looking anything into how hormones might differ. And I remember reading this one study and it was specifically about the genetic differences between males and females and how they can affect so many different diseases and research studies are just never accounting for that. 

And nowadays they are trying to more so that's not to say that's never happening, but I think I just realized I wanted to be part of that change. And being in a field that like focuses on sex differences and what that means for health impacts.

Because we're not just small men, we are very different. Oh my God. Yeah. 

And I think that like for so long, the research just treated us like small men and that all of the medications would work [00:13:00] the exact same. And we're living the consequences of that. So Yeah. 

And if you have symptoms, it's just because your menstrual cycle probably, or Yeah. You're crazy. Get used to pain. Yeah. 

Oh my god. Yeah. Yeah. Or I'll just gaslight you until you believe that, you know? Like you're all good. 

Yeah. Anyway, so I think I just realized all that and I was like, I wanna be part of research. And then that's what brought me here. And I am specializing in, the use of different preventative interventions, so like surgeries or medication for reducing breast and ovarian cancer risk for people with BRCA mutations or a higher risk of getting breast and ovarian cancer. So very niche, very specific.

Again, yeah, we probably won't go too much into anything related to me, although we do wanna do a whole episode on gynecologic cancers. In general. Bring lots of information to you about that and what you can think about in terms of prevention. 

Yeah, like when do you need to get screened for breast cancer?

That's such a big question that people have

Actually, breast cancer actually is not a gynecologic cancer, get burned. 

Sorry about that. [00:14:00] Oh god. Okay. Well, we can talk about nutrition,

Commonly confused. Yeah, no. I know nothing about nutrition.

Okay, so breast cancer is not one of them.

No, there's five. Okay. Cervical - I regret starting this 'cause now I'm like, well, I'm gonna try: Ovarian, endometrial or like uterine, cervical,

You already said it. 

Cervical, wait, there's five guys. There's five guys.

Cervical, I, cervical, cervical. Cervical, and cervical. Okay. 

That's, that's how you learn with us. 

See, this is why we have experts coming in because even though I should be an expert in this, I'm not to be trusted.

Yeah. It. So stressful to be filmed and in the studio. Yeah. I'm sure you know.

I was put on the spot, guys, come back to me next week. I will know the different gynecologic cancers. Yeah, yeah. No problem. We'll have an expert here. So, you never have to trust us, but we're gonna talk about this as well.

Yeah. And we'll do stuff like that and be stupid. And you'll be entertained. And then you'll just laugh at us while [00:15:00] learning, and then it'll be all like passive sponge learning information while giggling. Yeah. Yeah. We want it to be fun. 

I actually did that on purpose. 

It’s gonna be fun. Oh yeah. Yeah. Okay. Sure.

I just wanted you guys to have an example of like how much fun you're gonna have listening to the podcast. Yeah. 

Yeah. 

Okay. Well, I think that's everything for the first episode. I think so. Yeah. Wow. Perfect. We've nailed it. No, we probably didn't. You're probably hating us, but just know, it's the first one.

Yeah. It's gonna get better. Please be nice. It's, yeah, it's gonna get better. Feedback welcome. As long as it's kind. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. 

Thank you so much for listening. Thank you. We can't wait to see you in the next episode. Yeah. 

The next episode- do we wanna say what it is or?

No, It's a surprise.

Okay. Follow us on all of our social and you're gonna see it. So, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube at the Volvo Evolution Pod. You can listen to all of our teasers. 

Yeah. 

Yeah. Okay. Thank you so much for coming. 

Yeah, thank you. Hope you have a nice rest of your day or evening or morning. Okay. [00:16:00] Bye.