Welcome to another great episode of Unclassified Woman! Today, I'm speaking to the lovely Kate Powe.

Many people make assumptions about others without even realising it. We see a woman in her 40’s without children and assume she is selfish or too career-oriented to take time to raise children. Often there are circumstances playing out behind the scenes that we just aren’t aware of. Today’s show focuses on the problems that endometriosis can cause in terms of fertility and family-building and the need for women to have the knowledge about their bodies to make empowered choices. Imagine if we learnt about these subjects in school....

Kate Powe is an amazing naturopath based on the Northern Beaches area of Sydney, Australia. Kate has a passion for helping women balance their hormones and create happy, powerful lives. By integrating evidence-based medicine with mind-body principles and addressing underlying causes of cycle and hormonal disruption, Kate aims to support women mentally, emotionally, and physically to feel balanced and in control of their bodies, moods, and energy.

Kate holds a BA in English from the University of Sydney, an Advanced Diploma of Naturopathy from Nature Care College, and a Diploma of Advanced Metaphysics from Chiara College. Kate’s a member of the Australian Traditional Medicine Society (ATMS) and regularly furthers her education in naturopathic medicine, particularly in women’s endocrinology, including thyroid disease, endometriosis, and PCOS. She has contributed to many podcasts on endometriosis and written articles on the topic for numerous magazines. She has an obsession with all things Italian and sneaks to Italy and the UK as often as possible. Who can blame her! 

What you’ll hear in this episode:

• How both circumstances and choice played into Kate’s not having children. As one of six kids, she always assumed she’d meet a partner and have children---but it just didn’t happen
• How she suffered from endometriosis and adenomyosis during her reproductive years, which complicated matters and impacted her fertility.
• The factors involved when your life doesn’t follow the assumed “pattern” and the judgments that people make about you about being selfish and career-driven.
• Endometriosis is a real issue and taboo topic as a condition that impacts fertility and causes painful periods. Lesions, scar tissue, and inflammation impact the reproductive organs.
• Adenomyosis affects the muscle wall of the uterus and contributes to painful flooding periods.
• These conditions can take 7-13 years to correctly diagnose because everyone assumes having painful periods is completely normal. It isn't....and women should not suffer in silence.
• Both endometriosis and adenomyosis are not isolated conditions, but part of a larger inflammatory process in the body that can have a genetic component.
• Women in the past dealt with these conditions in silence, not knowing how to treat them. They weren’t aware of what was happening in their bodies and their doctors weren’t concerned.
• The cost of treating endometriosis can be higher than treating diabetes!
• Two keys to know about endometriosis:
  • The only way to accurately diagnose it is with surgery--not a scan;
  • It’s a moveable disease with sometimes silent and inconsistent symptoms.
• Endometriosis presents a wide variety of symptoms, including heavy and long, painful periods, pain in legs, discomfort after sex, and a connection with yeast infections.
• Now we know that endometriosis is a systemic inflammatory condition around an immune disregulation in the peritoneal fluid and much more than simply a reproductive issue.
• Naturopaths look at diet and lifestyle approaches to remove inflammation, detox the liver, and keep regular bowel function
• A key in endometriosis treatment is to guard against toxins in personal care products.
• How education can revolutionise women’s health, especially now that the driving force behind the push for more information is coming from women
• The old treatments for endo included “go on the pill” or “get pregnant”. Not very helpful is your endometriosis is causing infertility!
• The way Kate deals with grief now in her 40’s differently than in her 20’s and 30’s when there were lots of questions, suffering, symptoms, and surgeries.
• Dealing with the implication from others that “something must be wrong with you if you don’t have children”.
• How Kate has dealt with awkward social scenarios and the crazy assumptions people make about your personal life.
• How women can assume many different roles in life around caring and nurturing that don’t involve having a biological child.
• The added challenges for Kate in not having a partner and not feeling supported in that way.
• Statistics show that by 2030 in Australia, there will be more family units without kids, a changing family dynamic, and more global consciousness around “community”.
• Why “the pill” is not a good choice because it shuts down the female cycle, but women aren’t taught to question its use.
• Most of Kate’s clients are having post-pill problems and hormonal imbalances.
• How Kate shows creativity in her passion with women’s health, her energy medicine, and cycle essences to help women connect with their cycles.

Find out more about Kate and her work at www.katepowe.com

If you enjoyed this episode and would like to help more women access these stories, then please subscribe and leave us a review or rating on Itunes. For information about more episodes go to: michellemariemcgrath.com

I would love to hear what you found most helpful about this interview. Thank you.

Welcome to another episode of Unclassified Woman. Today I'm delighted to share my conversation with Adebisi Adewusi, based in Nigeria. 

How much courage does it take to REALLY go against what society deems the norm? As far as women’s rights and feminism have come, we sometimes forget that there are places in the world where women don’t have independence and are truly stigmatised for making 'unusual' choices. Today’s show is about someone who walks her own path and shares her own truth with immense courage. 

What was even more humbling is how modest she is about her choices. I truly hope you enjoy today's conversation with the inspiring Adebisi.

"African tradition teaches that if someone doesn’t have a lineage to pass on then their life has no meaning or purpose."

Adebisi Adewusi of Nigeria is a rockstar photographer, writer, and content consultant from startups in Israel to multi-million dollar companies in America. She’s helped various companies across the world improve their content strategy and marketing. Besides helping businesses succeed, Adebisi uses her skills to bust myths about women and bring issues that African women face to the forefront.

Through her writing, Adebisi explores issues connected to feminism, gender, and other topics with strong social and political context. She’s written about child marriage in Uganda, ending sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, gender stereotypes at work, and other spaces. She’s been featured on numerous international platforms, including the Huffington Post, She Thinks, BBC’s Why Factor, African Feminism, and many others.

Adebisi also runs a gender advocacy blog, The Female Orator, where she educates non-profits on how to get funding and interviews subject experts in the non-profit sector. She’s a feminist raised by women who climbed trees and spoke their minds when it wasn’t fashionable to do so. Adebisi’s feminism is shaped by the past and sustained by the present.

What you’ll hear in this episode: 

• How Adebisi made the choice to be a writer and do her work--without being a mother.
• Adebisi’s path is VERY unusual for a Nigerian woman and some of her family think it’s odd to not have children.
• Breaking through traditional boundaries and creating her own path--and being at peace with it.
• How she handled the topic of children with her boyfriend, who was fine with the decision (even though men are expected to pass on their lineage).
• How African society’s attitudes dictate that marriage and having children is normal and not having them is not.
• How people believe that a childless women may be a witch.
• The connection between religion and African tradition in having children.
• If you speak openly about not wanting a child, people just assume you must be crazy. It is just not acceptable.
• Not having children is taboo and like placing a curse on yourself.
• The pressure for women of colour compared to a white woman--”It’s a grievous offence.”
• Being a role model for other young African women.
• Women in African culture are bound to the husband to do what he wants, so it takes an open-minded man to be OK with not having children.
• Adebisi is from an open-minded, educated family who understand her choices.
• Women who can’t have children will even buy them on the black market to avoid the stigma of being childless. Even though this is officially illegal, the buying and selling of babies happens more frequently than many realise.
• Adebisi is a strong voice who writes what she wants to, even about taboo topics, and she doesn’t care what other people think.
• How Adebisi is fulfilled by her writing, mentoring young women, and telling stories through photography.
• Adebisi’s words of encouragement: “It’s OK not to have children and to make choices about your own body. It doesn’t make you less of a woman. You can nurture other people and there are other women who will support you on your journey. It's also important financially support yourself, so you are not dependent on a man and can make your own decisions."

Find about more about Adebisi and her work: 

www.thefemaleorator.com

Find her on Twitter: @biswag

Email Adebisi: adebisiadewusi@yahoo.com

If you enjoyed this episode and would like to help more women access these stories, then please subscribe and leave us a review or rating on Itunes. For information about more episodes go to: michellemariemcgrath.com

I would love to hear what you found most helpful about this interview. Thank you.