{"podcast":{"title":"WomenKind Collective","slug":"womenkind-collective-3653569","podcast_index_feed_id":3653569,"rss_url":"https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/660030ee8d6ad80016ba0381","website_url":"https://www.instagram.com/invites/contact/?i=ydo7don7a70g&utm_content=l57ouu5","image_url":"https://assets.pippa.io/shows/660030ee8d6ad80016ba0381/1767629207011-0d1bea8b-820a-4079-b73c-eccc01c6f3b8.jpeg","author":"Jinty Sheerin and Lou Hockings-Thompson","episode_count":184,"summary":"Welcome to Womenkind Collective: Spill The Tea, the podcast where no topic is off-limits, and every conversation is served with honesty, humour, and heart. Hosted by lifelong friends Jinty and Lou, we bring you a vibrant, fun, weekly mix of education, laughter, and real talk. From health and hormones to family, relationships, equity, and the realities of menopause, we tackle the topics that matter, especially the ones society often shies away from. With the help of expert guests, including Menopause specialists, GPs, Gynaecologists, Nutritionists, Sleep Therapists, Cancer Survivors, Advocates, and Campaigners, we provide evidence-based facts, real-life experiences, and the support you deserve. Beyond the podcast, we take action. We founded Exmouth’s first Menopause Café, giving women a space to connect, and launched the #WheresMyClinic campaign, fighting for an NHS Menopause Clinic in Devon. We’ve even spilled the tea live on BBC Radio Devon, hosting their first-ever menopause café. So, whether you’re navigating the ups and downs of hormones, curious about the latest health insights, or just here for the relatable stories (and occasional faux pas), grab a cuppa and join us. It’s t…","last_synced_at":"2026-07-26T20:19:15.812825+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/womenkind-collective-3653569"},"episode":{"title":"MRKH: The Rare Condition That No One Talks About, with Natalia Shvarts","slug":"mrkh-the-rare-condition-that-no-one-talks-about-with-natalia-shvarts","published_at":"2026-07-04T21:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/womenkind-collective-3653569/mrkh-the-rare-condition-that-no-one-talks-about-with-natalia-shvarts","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/womenkind-collective-3653569","url":"https://shows.acast.com/womenkind-collective/episodes/mrkh-with-natalia-svarts","audio_url":"https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/660030ee8d6ad80016ba0381/e/6a429a0fc2fe1c7f49be1906/media.mp3","summary":"Link to Pre Order: Tackling Gender Bias in The Healthcare System. What Patient stories Teach Us About Implementing Systemic Change:  https://www.waterstones.com/book/tackling-gender-bias-in-the-healthcare-system/louise-hockings-thompson/jinty-sheerin/9781805018810 She was 16 years old, newly separated from her home country, when she received a diagnosis that would reshape everything she thought she knew about herself, her body, and her place in the world. Natalia Shvarts was born with Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser Syndrome, MRKH , a rare condition affecting over 10,000 women in the UK, where the vagina and uterus are underdeveloped or absent. It would take years, and a memoir, to find her way home to herself. In this episode, we sit down with Natalia, solicitor, speaker, MRKH advocate, and author of I Don't Matter: In Search of Home , for an honest, unflinching conversation about what it means to be told, as a teenager, that your body is different, and to spend years rebuilding your identity from that moment on. We explore the diagnosis itself, what Natalia was told at sixteen and how she made sense of it; what MRKH actually is and why it remains so widely undiagnosed; the profound question she found herself asking in those early years: \"If real women bleed, what even was I?\" ; navigating vaginal dilation as a teenager, largely alone and without adequate support; where gender bias shows up in MRKH care and how the medical system fails women with the condition; the loneliness, secrecy and shame that surrounded her diagnosis and her family's reaction to it; entering the UK's first womb transplant trial and the moment she made the decision to withdraw; the link between her diagnosis, people pleasing, and finding herself in a relationship involving coercive control;…","meta_description":"Link to Pre Order: Tackling Gender Bias in The Healthcare System. What Patient stories Teach Us About Implementing Systemic Change: https://www.wate…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3933,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/womenkind-collective-3653569/episodes/mrkh-the-rare-condition-that-no-one-talks-about-with-natalia-shvarts/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/womenkind-collective-3653569/mrkh-the-rare-condition-that-no-one-talks-about-with-natalia-shvarts.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}