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"Every Two Weeks You Are No Longer Yourself"

Dr Emilė Radytė is a Harvard and Oxford-trained neuroscientist and the co-founder and CEO of Samphire Neuroscience, where she builds neurotechnology for women's health. Her work treats PMS, PMDD and menstrual pain as conditions of the brain, not just the hormones. She was named in Forbes 30 Under 30 for healthcare in 2024.

TW: We discuss depression and suicide in this epsiode.

💬 Top quotes

1. "If you live with PMDD, it means every two weeks you are no longer yourself, so you lose literally half of all of your reproductive life."
2. "When most women test their hormones, they find out it's perfectly fine. The reason they have those symptoms is because of how their brains respond to those hormones."
3. "For years, depression was called hysteria in women, and so I think the idea that women could have something specific is already relatively new."
4. "A stable job expects you to show up the same way every day, and is built for a male-like cycle, where women, we know we're not the same every day anyway."
5. "Hormones are just the way that our bodies talk to us, and I think if anyone gets anything from this talk, that should be the key."

🧠 What we cover:

• Why PMDD is a recognised medical condition, not a bad mood, and how it differs from PMS even when the symptoms overlap
• Why most women with PMDD have completely normal hormone levels, and what that really means
• The two weeks before your period, explained: why the part of your brain that regulates emotion goes offline, and why that isn't a character flaw
• The woman who writes a resignation letter every single month, and what it tells us about impulsivity in PMDD
• Progesterone, allopregnanolone and GABA: why a hormone that calms most women can do the opposite for some
• Why your pain threshold drops during your period, so you feel more pain and have more to feel
• PMDD was only recognised as a depressive disorder in 2014, which means most psychiatrists trained before it existed
• What the evidence actually says about supplements, and whether they reach your brain at all
• The pill and PMDD: what it does, what it doesn't, and why options matter more than answers
• How brain stimulation works, whether it lasts, and what neuroplasticity really means
• Why ADHD and PMDD so often show up together, and what's happening in the prefrontal cortex
• The link between stress, your brain and the timing of your cycle
• Why hormones are the message, not the cause, including in PMOS (PCOS)
• What we still don't know about PMDD and long-term brain health

⚠️ One correction to note

In the episode, Emilė says 70% of women with PMDD have ADHD or autism. The research runs the other way: studies measure how many people with ADHD or autism also experience PMDD, not the reverse. I couldn't find a figure for the share of people with PMDD who have ADHD or autism. The comorbidity itself is well documented.

💛 Support

Please remember support is available any time.

Samaritans 116 123 (UK, free, 24/7). Call or text 988 (US). IAPMD at iapmd.org has PMDD-specific support and free self-screening tools. This episode is for information, not medical advice, so please speak to your GP or a clinician about your own symptoms.

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Jo sits down with Rocsi — menstrual cycle nutritionist and the woman who focuses her life's work on reducing period pain, irregular cycles, PMS, PCOS symptoms, and more — through one thing: gut health.

What if everything you thought you knew about period pain was wrong?

Not your uterus. Not your hormones. Not bad luck - instead, maybe its in your gut?

The science is emerging, but the results so far are undeniable.

Why You Need to Listen to This Episode

• You've been blaming your luteal phase — but it's not the end of the problem
• You struggle with anxiety, PMS and your mood before your period
• You have a recent PMOS/ PCOS diagnosis
• You have heavy, painful periods

📋 What We Cover

• 🦠 What the gut microbiome is — and why it's the missing piece in women's health
• 🔄 The bidirectional relationship between gut health and your menstrual cycle — moving from correlation to causation
• 🩺 The three monthly cycles your body runs every single month — and why most women have never been told about them
• 💩 Period poops explained — the prostaglandin and progesterone interplay
• 🌀 The estrobolome — the group of gut bacteria that controls how much oestrogen circulates in your body
• 😤 PMS and the gut — why dysbiosis makes PMS significantly worse, and what to do about it
• 🧠 The gut-brain axis — how serotonin, dopamine, and GABA are made in the gut and what happens when they can't be
• 🌸 PCOS and the gut — 70% of PCOS patients have insulin resistance, and the gut microbiome directly influences insulin and androgen levels
• ⚡ Endometriosis and the gut — a landmark double-blind RCT on a gut-derived metabolite (sakuranin) that could change everything for endo patients
• 🥗 The cycle syncing myth — why eating differently every week is burning women out, and what the research actually says
• 📱 Fibre maxing and gut scrub — what TikTok gets right and wrong
• 🌿 Rocsi's three non-negotiables for gut health that everyone can start today
• 🌙 The 10–12 hour overnight fast — what happens in your gut while you sleep (the "night crew" is coming)
• 🥦 The crucial rule on cruciferous vegetables — don't start here if you're new to fibre
• 🫙 Pickles in vinegar vs. brine — why this one detail matters
• 📊 Three real client case studies — from irregular periods to pain-free cycles
• 🐟 The five oily fish that could transform your period (and the sardine recipe that converts the haters)
• ⚡ What changed Rocsi's own health forever — the plant tracker that revealed she wasn't eating as well as she thought

💛 Resources & Further Support

• Her Aligned Hub — Rocsi's practice for menstrual health nutrition: heralignedhub.com
• Endometriosis UK — patient support and information: endometriosis-uk.org
• PCOS UK — support, information, and advocacy: pcosuk.org
• NICE Endometriosis Guidelines — updated November 2024: nice.org.uk/guidance/ng73
• NHS: Heavy periods — nhs.uk/conditions/heavy-periods
• NHS: PMOS update - https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/polyendocrine-metabolic-ovarian-syndrome-pmos/

📲 Follow & Subscribe

If this episode made you see your period — and your gut — differently, please share it with a woman in your life who needs to hear it. 💚

🎧 Available on: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | All major platforms

Living Hellth is a women's health podcast committed to honest, evidence-led conversations — because every woman deserves access to the information that could change how she feels in her own body, prevent and manage chronic disease

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We've reached 1.3 million views across all platforms, proudly covering some of the most chronic and confusing conditions and diseases that disproportionately affect women.

Help us keep the podcast going by following us on Instagram or TikTok, or subscribe via YouTube.

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Krupa's fertility journey spans 12 years, four rounds of IVF, two countries, endometriosis diagnosis that finally came through fertility investigations, a near-fatal surgical complication, a pandemic, and ultimately — twins, born at 32 weeks, at 43 years old.

But it also spans something else: 20 years of painful, heavy periods dismissed as normal in a South Asian community where menstruation was a secret and fertility struggles were unspoken.

She then had to build her own support network from scratch — anonymously on Instagram and in a secret Facebook group — because nowhere else felt safe enough to ask the questions she needed answered.

This is nothing short of remarkable!

🩸 Heavy, painful periods dismissed for 20 years — and the endometriosis diagnosis that finally came through fertility investigations, not GP care

🏥 The NHS fertility system — IUI as a precursor to IVF, how funding works, and why IUI was the wrong treatment for Krupa's diagnosis from the start

💉 Four rounds of IVF — across NHS, private London clinics, and ultimately Athens — and what drove the decision to keep going (and to stop)

🚨 Ovarian torsion: the near-fatal complication — a surgical error during egg retrieval that left Krupa unable to walk for months and changed everything

✈️ IVF abroad — why Krupa went to Athens, what to look for in an international clinic, and why regulation matters more than location

🧠 The mental health reality of IVF — anxiety, withdrawal from friends, the trauma of a 12-year journey, and why she was placed under perinatal mental health care during pregnancy

💑 Sustaining a relationship through fertility treatment — couples counselling, fertility counsellors, and staying on the same page through the hardest years

🌸 Endometriosis, diet and lifestyle — how changing her diet had more impact on her pain than surgery did

🤫 The South Asian community and fertility taboo — periods as shameful secrets, counselling as a cultural taboo, and the anonymous Facebook group she built for 200 Indian women who had nowhere else to go

📱 Building community when there is none — the TTC Instagram community, anonymous Facebook groups, and why connection with strangers became her lifeline

👶 Twin boys at 43, born at 32 weeks — the NICU journey, the emergency C-section under general anaesthetic, and the PTSD that arrived after

💛 Life on the other side — her role as a Bliss trustee, her advisory work in women's health, and the calls she still gets from South Asian women who need someone safe to talk to

💛 Resources Mentioned

• Bliss — charity for babies born premature or sick; Krupa is now a trustee: bliss.org.uk
• Peanut App — fertility and motherhood community app: peanut-app.io
• NHS Subfertility Units — your GP can refer you; ask specifically about the subfertility unit in your local trust
• NHS GUM Clinics — anonymous STI testing in every postcode; ask your GP
• HFEA (Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority) — UK fertility regulator; clinic ratings, evidence ratings for add-ons: hfea.gov.uk
• Fertility counsellors — available through most IVF clinics, NHS and private; ask your unit about access
• Perinatal Mental Health Teams — available through NHS for those with significant anxiety or trauma during pregnancy; ask your midwife or consultant to refer you
• Endometriosis UK — patient support and information: endometriosis-uk.org

Support the show

We've reached 1.3 million views across all platforms, proudly covering some of the most chronic and confusing conditions and diseases that disproportionately affect women.

Help us keep the podcast going by following us on Instagram or TikTok, or subscribe via YouTube.