Let's Talk
Menu
March is a month to remember the impact women have had on our history. This Women’s History Month, we want to highlight how women’s health and wellness have been historically neglected over centuries - and how podcasts have been instrumental in bridging that gap, and promoting knowledge and awareness. Colliding with Women’s History Month, March also marks Endometriosis Awareness Month - a reminder that for many women across the world, the struggle for recognition and understanding is ongoing.
An unlikely ally in the journey of women’s health from the sidelines of public conversation to the forefront is podcasting. As the podcast landscape continues to grow, health and wellness has become one of its most popular genres. Since the pandemic, Spotify has reported a 123% year-on-year increase in streams.
Podcasts play a critical role in providing accessible, expert-led information on women’s health, filling the gaps that education and general medicine have left open. Health-focused series and shows are doing this in various ways:
Many women’s health conditions have historically been dismissed, minimised, or ignored, partly due to their status as “taboo” and partly due to a history of being attributed to “hysteria”, a since discredited but damaging concept that suppressed awareness of, and subsequent research into, conditions affecting women for generations.
Menstruation and menopause, among other subjects, are often left undiscussed out of awkwardness or embarrassment. These feelings of shame can prevent women and girls from talking about, asking about, or understanding their own bodies and health needs. By sharing real stories and experiences from real women, podcasts help destigmatise these topics and create space for open, shame-free conversation.
Podcasts are an impressive learning tool - in a single 40-minute episode, you can learn more about your body and its processes than you ever did in school. Through unfiltered conversations featuring input from healthcare professionals, scientific experts, and women with lived experience, you can explore different conditions in your own time, connecting with others as you go.
Whether encouraging listeners to take control of their own health, pass on their knowledge, or simply feel comforted knowing others share similar experiences, the personal nature of podcasts builds communities, creating the feeling of those easy conversations shared between friends.
Research suggests that people engage more deeply when listening to someone tell their own personal story. Podcasts devoted to underrepresented areas of women’s health, like menopause for example, lean into this, using first-hand accounts to make unfamiliar or complicated conditions feel relatable and accessible.
The need for a better education has become increasingly apparent. Public knowledge around women’s health, particularly menstruation and menopause, has been found to be alarmingly insufficient, so much so that the government has released a 10-year plan aimed at improving public understanding of conditions affecting women and girls and removing the barriers they face in accessing healthcare.
Existing women’s health and wellness podcasts empower listeners by equipping them with the language, skills, and knowledge needed to advocate for themselves, whether discussing symptoms with a GP or raising concerns in a hospital. A popular theme across many women’s health podcasts is the debunking of common myths, aiming to reduce confusion and fearmongering and replace it with clear information.
While endometriosis remains the second most common gynaecological condition in the UK - affecting roughly 10% of reproductive age women across the world, which translates to around 190 million people - it lacks fundamental awareness and attention.
39% of women report needing to visit their GP 10 or more times before endometriosis is even suspected, and the average length of time it takes before eventual diagnosis is nine years and four months.
Endometriosis has been historically neglected, with women turned away from hospitals and their debilitating symptoms reduced to a “bad period”. As a result, those living with the condition often find their mental health, education, work life, and confidence in healthcare professionals significantly and negatively impacted.
Conditions like endometriosis serve as prime examples of why podcasts focused on improving awareness and understanding around women’s health are pivotal in ensuring women feel heard, understood, and respected.
Endo Matters: Using direct feedback and suggestions from listeners, Endo Matters provides tips, advice, and useful information on how to live a full life with endometriosis - straight from Michelle Brookes, a health and wellbeing consultant who lives with the condition herself.
It’s Not JUST a Period!: A podcast dedicated to calling out bias and misinformation in women’s health. Each episode features a new guest to talk about periods, cycles, endometriosis, PCOS, and more.
The Endometriosis Podcast: Monthly discussion on new updates, research, and news in the endometriosis world. Hosted by doctors Nicholas Fogelson and Shanti Mohling. Episodes cover themes like the myths and realities of the condition and comparing various treatments and surgeries.
PERIODically: Coming straight from the University of Oxford’s Chemistry Department, this podcast discusses the impact of periods in studying and experiences at university - through the lens of chemistry students and researchers.
Just As Well, The Women’s Health Podcast: A comforting chatty podcast hosted by working mums Gemma Atkinson and Women’s Health Editor-in-Chief Claire Sanderson. It looks at balancing packed schedules and busy lifestyles, alongside maintaining good physical and mental wellbeing.
HPV Awareness Campaign Podcast: Produced by us here at Cue, this podcast dives into the insights and strategies for effective HPV patient education and engagement. The inaugural episode takes a look at the amalgamation of challenges related to attitudes, access, and awareness that shape HPV vaccination decisions around the world, linking to “vaccine hesitancy”.
WSPID Podcast: Also in partnership with Cue, the WSPID podcast features experts in discussion on all things paediatric infectious diseases. Episode conversations range from new and innovative research and technologies to ethical considerations. In this podcast, professionals from around the world, largely women, come together to demystify medical misinformation, and create a space for women to voice and share their medical expertise.
Through the informative intimacy of longform audio, podcasts have transformed once taboo topics into casual conversations, and continue to educate many. They provide both a platform and a megaphone for honest and relatable discussions aimed at empowering women, and arming them with the confidence to take control of their wellbeing.
At Cue, we believe podcasting is one of the most powerful tools for education, connection, and change. From partnering with health organisations to produce educational content that reaches diverse audiences, to giving a platform to the voices and experiences that have been dismissed for so long - we are committed to being part of the conversations.
If you think your brand could benefit from a strategic podcast, find out what Cue could do for your audience. Book a call with us today.
Join our carefully curated newsletter packed with insights, tips and resources to help shape and share your stories.
