The Period Press

Samantha Garstin

The Period Press - audio edition. Real-life stories in bite-size episodes from women and people with periods, about menstrual health, cycles, neurodivergence, ADHD, autism, PMDD, endometriosis, PCOS, perimenopause, body literacy and a whole bunch more. If you're figuring out your ADHD, autism, or late diagnosis alongside your menstrual cycle... or you discovered all of this during perimenopause... you're in the right place. From navigating hormones that decide to do their own thing, to surviving being a human puddle when they do, the audio snacks are ready when you are.

  1. 2d ago

    Get the Bloody Message Across... with Sam Warner

    Sam Warner is a Neurodivergent Communication Specialist, TEDx speaker, and founder of Get Your Message Across. And like me, she's AuDHD (and yes, it brings me joy that it rhymed). She has 25 years of corporate experience, and has made it her mission to help people communicate better together, especially when the difference is the kind you can't see.And that's where this connects to my world.Because so much of what I do is about communication. Getting organisations to actually listen.Getting people to talk about menstrual health and the impacts that it has on neurodivergent people. And helping neurodivergent people find language for their experience, and helping workplaces create space for that conversation.Knowing the facts isn't enough if nobody's saying them out loud.So we're going to talk about...🩸 Why communication breaks down when neurodivergence is in the room🩸 What it actually takes to make every brain feel heard🩸 And how getting the message across is half the battle, whether you're talking about periods, neurodivergence, or bothGet the Bloody Message Across.

    44 min

  2. 2d ago

    Why Open Plan Offices Don't Work for Neurodivergent Brains

    Ever walked into your open-plan office and felt the day drain out of you before you'd even sat down? In this episode, I'm talking about why open plan offices are so depleting for neurodivergent brains, and why it's got nothing to do with how much you care about your job. In this episode... Why neurodivergent brains struggle with auditory filtering in noisy environmentsHow ADHD and autistic brains process sound differently, and what that costs you by 3pmThe role of the luteal phase and perimenopause in making sensory sensitivity worseWhy fluctuating capacity affects far more people than we tend to acknowledgeWhat individuals and people leads can actually do to make open plan offices more workableHelpful Links... 📖 Read the transcript here.  🟦 Connect with me on ⁠LinkedIn ⁠for daily insights 🌶️ ND friends, grab your CyclicalTrait Mapper and start spotting your own patterns. 🩸 Not-so-spicy? Download the Cycle Mapping Guide instead. 💌 ⁠⁠Subscribe to The Period Press⁠⁠ Written editions drop every Sunday at 5 am, ready for coffee in bed at 10!

    11 min
  3. The Cost of Period 'Banter' in the Workplace

    May 18

    The Cost of Period 'Banter' in the Workplace

    Workplace banter, menstruation, and neurodivergence. I'm talking about the real cost of jokes that get dressed up as harmless, specifically the kind that use hormones as a punchline. In this episode... What's actually happening when a woman gets written off as 'moody' or 'probably on her period'Why banter is a particular minefield for neurodivergent peopleWhat you can actually do when you find yourself in that room, whether it happened to you or someone elseNo one's identity, body, or brain should ever be the material for a joke. This one's for anyone who's ever sat in stony silence whilst the room laughed. Helpful Links... 📖 Read the transcript here.  🟦 Connect with me on ⁠LinkedIn ⁠for daily insights 🌶️ ND friends, grab your SpicyTrait Mapper and start spotting your own patterns. 🩸 Not-so-spicy? Download the Cycle Harmony Mapper instead. 💌 ⁠⁠Subscribe to The Period Press⁠⁠ Written editions drop every Sunday at 5 am, ready for coffee in bed at 10!

    9 min

  4. May 5

    How to Exercise With Your Menstrual Cycle (Not Against It)

    Ever wondered why your fitness routine feels completely different depending on where you are in your menstrual cycle? If you've ever yeeted your trainers into the bin mid-routine, this one's for you. In this episode... Why moving cyclically works better than a fixed fitness routineHow to exercise with your menstrual cycle across all four phasesWhat "no pain, no gain" does to a spicy brain (spoiler: nothing good)How neurodivergence changes the way each phase feels in your bodyWhy ovulation isn't always the green light it's made out to beThe one question worth asking yourself every morning instead of following a planMentioned in the episode - A Year of Cyclical Running - What I Learned Helpful Links... 📖 Read the transcript here.  🟦 Connect with me on ⁠LinkedIn ⁠for daily insights 🌶️ ND friends, grab your SpicyTrait Mapper and start spotting your own patterns. 🩸 Not-so-spicy? Download the Cycle Harmony Mapper instead. 💌 ⁠⁠Subscribe to The Period Press⁠⁠ Written editions drop every Sunday at 5 am, ready for coffee in bed at 10!

    11 min

  5. Apr 29

    HRT, Perimenopause and ADHD - Using Cycle Mapping for Self-Advocacy

    Ever wondered why perimenopause hits so much harder when you have a spicy brain? In this episode, I'm sharing my own HRT journey, including what two years of cycle mapping data revealed, how ADHD and oestrogen are more connected than most people realise, and how I walked into a GP appointment armed with evidence and got exactly what I asked for. If you've ever felt fobbed off, dismissed, or like you're asking for too much, this one's for you. In this episode: perimenopause and ADHD, oestrogen and dopamine, cycle mapping for self-advocacy, body-identical HRT, neurodivergent traits and hormonal shifts, NICE guidelines, gender pain gap Helpful Links... 📖 Read the transcript ⁠here⁠.  🟦 Connect with me on ⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn ⁠⁠⁠⁠for daily insights 🌶️ ND friends, grab your ⁠SpicyTrait Mapper⁠ and start spotting your own patterns. 🩸 Not-so-spicy? Download the ⁠Cycle Harmony Mapper⁠ instead. 💌 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to The Period Press⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Written editions drop every Sunday at 5 am, ready for coffee in bed at 10!

    11 min
  6. Bloody Hard Conversations... with Katie Murray

    Apr 20

    Bloody Hard Conversations... with Katie Murray

    Katie Murray is a former HR professional turned specialist HR copywriter. She helps HR people find the right words for the change they're trying to make. She also wrote a guest blog for me about flooding and clotting from her own experience. (Yes, that Katie. The HR copywriting lady. Writing about periods. Because of course she did.) So I knew I had to have her on. Because so often the barrier to better menstrual health at work isn't knowledge, it's language. You can learn stuff from the internet. But how do you actually start talking about it openly? How do you say it out loud, to the right person, without it feeling impossible? So we're going to talk about... 🩸 Why finding the right words is half the battle 🩸 What stops people from saying what they actually mea 🩸 And why half the problem is not talking to the right person in the first place Oh, and we will absolutely be touching on her flooding story. Because it wouldn't be The Bloody Truth if we didn't talk about periods.Helpful Links... 🟦 Connect with me on ⁠LinkedIn ⁠for daily insights 🌶️ ND friends, grab your SpicyTrait Mapper and start spotting your own patterns. 🩸 Not-so-spicy? Download the Cycle Harmony Mapper instead. 💌 ⁠⁠Subscribe to The Period Press⁠⁠ Written editions drop every Sunday at 5 am, ready for coffee in bed at 10!

    51 min

  7. Apr 20

    What the Pill Actually Does to Your Hormones (And What Nobody Told You)

    Ever wondered what the pill is actually doing to your hormones? Because it's probably not what you were told. In this episode... Why the pill creates a synthetic cycle and what that actually means for your hormonesThe difference between a withdrawal bleed and a real periodWhy the pill doesn't balance your hormones, and what it does insteadThe myth-busting history of how the pill was first prescribedHow hormonal contraception can mask early perimenopause symptomsWhy cycle mapping still matters on hormonal birth control, especially if you're neurodivergent or managing a chronic conditionHelpful Links... 📖 Read the transcript here.  🟦 Connect with me on ⁠LinkedIn ⁠for daily insights 🌶️ ND friends, grab your SpicyTrait Mapper and start spotting your own patterns. 🩸 Not-so-spicy? Download the Cycle Harmony Mapper instead. 💌 ⁠⁠Subscribe to The Period Press⁠⁠ Written editions drop every Sunday at 5 am, ready for coffee in bed at 10!

    11 min
  8. Cycles, Capacity & Collective Leadership with Claire Lowry-Hubball

    Apr 13

    Cycles, Capacity & Collective Leadership with Claire Lowry-Hubball

    This week, I’m joined by the awesome Claire Lowrey Hubbell from Impactful People. Claire works with organisations where leadership feels heavier than it should. Where too much responsibility sits with too few people. Where everyone is working hard… but not always together. Her focus isn’t on star players or heroic individuals. It’s on building collective leadership performance. Creating leaderful environments where responsibility is shared, challenge is healthy, and people move in the same direction without losing their individuality. And that’s where this connects to my world. On The Bloody Truth, we’ve had a lot of conversations about what happens when people carry more than they should. Silently managing symptoms. Overriding their bodies. Holding emotional labour. When responsibility isn’t shared, people cope. They mask. They override. They manage in silence. So we’re going to talk about: 🩸 What shared leadership actually looks like in real life 🩸 Why leadership gets heavy when you’re carrying it alone 🩸 And what shifts when trust is strong enough that people don’t have to hide what’s going on for them Because when trust is real, and leadership is shared… people don’t have to bleed quietly.

    46 min
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About

The Period Press - audio edition. Real-life stories in bite-size episodes from women and people with periods, about menstrual health, cycles, neurodivergence, ADHD, autism, PMDD, endometriosis, PCOS, perimenopause, body literacy and a whole bunch more. If you're figuring out your ADHD, autism, or late diagnosis alongside your menstrual cycle... or you discovered all of this during perimenopause... you're in the right place. From navigating hormones that decide to do their own thing, to surviving being a human puddle when they do, the audio snacks are ready when you are.

Information

  • Creator
    Samantha Garstin
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    52
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Samantha Garstin
  • Show Website
    The Period Press