Showy Ovaries with Penny Ashton.

Send us Fan Mail Veteran politician Judith Tizard welcomed Penny into her home to talk about her life, her body and her menopause. A part of the Tizard dynasty of public servants we chatted about her happily being the daughter of a Mayor, a Governor General and a Deputy Prime Minister. Also about the perils of coming out in the public eye, male infidelities in parliament, her cancer and just wheth...

Send us Fan Mail New Zealand's cabaret superstar Jackie Clarke, dropped into Penny's house with two hot buns to talk all about her sweaty knees. A self described human water feature, Jackie is determined she will not go gently into that hot flushed night but rather yell all about her menopause to anyone who is vaguely listening. They chat about her body's journey from a state house...

Send us Fan Mail Showy Ovaries is thrilled to welcome one of the busiest TV presenters and authors in Aotearoa, Miriama Kamo, to share her fertility journey with Penny.  From the pain of six miscarriages, to the joys of delivering her daughter, to the struggles of endometriosis and early menopause, Miriama is warm, open and honest about all that her body has been through, and she's still laug...

Send us Fan Mail Former Muppet wrangler at Henson Studios, Lana Schwarcz, joins Penny from Melbourne to talk about her medically induced menopause following a breast cancer diagnosis and surgery.  Lana took this experience and turned it into an award winning comedy show; Lovely lady Lump which she toured through Australia, Canada and to Edinburgh in an effort to get as many women as possible to ge...

Send us Fan Mail A minisode with a brief and not at all peer reviewed history and explanation of HRT - Hormone Replacement Therapy. It can sound as dry as a menopausal vagina so stand by for some appalling internet sourced menopause jokes. Like so bad. Like why internet.... WHY?  Louise Newson's Website: https://www.balance-menopause.com/ Fertility Associates: https://www.fertilityassociates....

Send us Fan Mail It's Shaky Ovaries! In a belated Purple Day Special (Epilepsy Awareness Day on March 26th) Penny chats to fellow ladies with epilepsy Jacki Morris and Denise Astill. Denise founded Foetal Anti Convulsant Syndrome NZ (FACNZ), an organisation about promoting awareness of the damage anti-convulsants can do to unborn children, and she and Jacki share their heartbreaking stories....

Send us Fan Mail This week it's bestselling brainbox Niki Bezzant whose book This Changes Everything: The Honest Guide to Menopause and Perimenopause, recently hit the Number One spot on the NZ top Ten Non-Fiction charts.  The result of two years of research it's an excellent manual to leaf through as you try and figure out just what the hell is happening to you as you head down the path...

Send us Fan Mail Award-winning NZ acting queen Robyn Malcolm was NZ's sexiest woman 2007, though she grew up feeling anything but. Her teenage years were a storm of hormones resulting in extreme PMT and bulimia, then once in her 20's she discovered the secret to weight loss; smoking.  In her first in person podcast interview, Penny chats Robyn's path to her recent 57th birthday thro...

Send us Fan Mail David Bowie's China Girl is all woman now and still as fabulous as ever. Having always felt incredibly lucky, Geeling told Penny tales of landing the biggest gig of her life rolling naked with the Starman in the surf, starring as Jasmine Sage in the epic 80's glamour TV show Gloss and her enduring roles as a hospitality doyenne on the Auckland nightlife scene.  They chat...

Send us Fan Mail What better way to celebrate International Women's Day Week than by getting a man in. Penny's husband celebrates her everyday so she decided to have a chat to him about podcasts, her bits and watching his hair run away from his face. Be a fly on their kitchen wall as they ponder midlife epiphanies, the symptoms of andropause and how to find some porn in a bush.   Support...

Send us Fan Mail It's a bonus episode on International Women's Day!  Best selling juggernaut Nicky Pellegrino joins Penny Ashton to chat all about her popular new menopause book 'Don't Sweat It: How to Make the Change a Good One'.  From her days as NZ Women's Weekly editor, to being worried a hot flush might make her a suspected covid case at customs, to how her husba...

Send us Fan Mail Queen of the catwalks AND the kitchen, it's NZ living treasure and HRT devotee Peta Mathias. Her culinary travel wings may have been clipped by a pandemic, but chef Peta's zest can't be suppressed and she chats to Penny as boldly as her colourful clothes. They cover her Catholic debutante entry into the marriage market, how the invention of The Pill was thrilling (o...

Send us Fan Mail Showy Ovaries is in the presence of journalism royalty this week with Voyager Media Award Winning Reporter of the Year, Alison Mau. A journalist since 17, Mau has been successful across whatever media format you care to name, from TV to radio to broadsheets....well until she's made redundant anyway.  From her native Australia to the BBC and finally to her nearly three decades...

Send us Fan Mail It's a brand new season and excitingly episode one was recorded live with a small but mighty studio audience as part of the Listen to This: Live Podcast Festival at Bats Theatre in Wellington. Penny's first guest this season is the hilarious comedian Sameena Zehra and tho Penny was stuck in West Auckland, she zoomed in and a jolly good time was had by all. Sameena treate...

Send us Fan Mail In late 2021 Penny Ashton stormed parliament, but in a much more fabulous way.  In Season Two's first minisode you can hear the speech she gave to the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians group at their Orange the World Event. This was a breakfast which was to celebrate the 16 Days of Activism to end Gender-based Violence globally. Thanks to Ingrid Leary for the invite and to...

Send us Fan Mail In the final of Season One of Showy Ovaries we have tenacious MP, Rugby Black Fern, Netball Silver Fern, and all round social justice amazon; Louisa Wall. Initially perplexed as why her fingers were tingling, her blood was raging and her temperature was a yo-yo, she eventually discovered it was menopause and had a light-bulb moment; "Why the hell didn't I know about ANY...

Send us Fan Mail Walkley Award winning Jane Caro has opinions and I was delighted to hear them. Australian feminist icon, lecturer, novelist, non-fiction star, thinker, atheist, stirrer, mother and grandmother; Jane has been rattling her feminist cage for decades now and poking the patriarchy with a big stick. We covered her flooded 'basement', how she overcame her crippling anxiety when...

Send us Fan Mail Carolyn Harris, deputy leader of Welsh Labour, is searingly honest about her struggle with grief, depression and Strictly Come Dancing. Floundering in the dark with what she now realises was menopause, she has turned those dark times into fuel and is at the forefront of the #menopauserevolution in the UK. She opens up about her mission to make lives better for ALL women regardless...

Send us Fan Mail All round funny feminist Michele A'Court chats fibroids, cysts and the sisterhood. Raised with frank conversations and laughter around the kitchen table, Michele was determined to pass the same knowledge onto her daughter, even if her daughter didn't want to hear it. We talk about her bothersome uterus, her first feminist fracas at the age of 4 and just what is locked aw...

Send us Fan Mail AUT Associate Professor Dr Ella Henry, (Ngātikahu ki Whangaroa, Ngāti Kuri, Te Rārawa) regales me with tales of skiing in bikini tops, getting expelled from High School, oh and menopause.  A life of travel, promotion of Maori excellence and fuc*ing the patriarchy. Prepare to hear one or two cackles as she discusses her one hot flash, throwing period parties for her daughters, and...

Send us Fan Mail Once she finally realised she was in the grip of menopause, cake addled Anna Sophia didn't take it lying down. Mainly because she had to go to the toilet six times a night. After listening to UK menopause guru Lousie Newson's podcasts, she approached her doctors with a shopping list. But it wasn't that easy and she had to fight to get the remedies to get her joy bac...

Send us Fan Mail Yes we have heard of hot flashes but what about electric shocks? Thinning hair? Stress incontinence? In this minisode I investigate the symptoms of menopause for Showy Ovaries News Network, so here are all THIRTY FOUR of the little buggers laid bare for your enjoyment. Oh, and the occasional mention of Alexander Skarsgård.   Support the show

Send us Fan Mail This week I chat to the YouTube parody sensation that is Shirley Serban.  In lockdown 2020, the Lake Brunner School's principal uploaded a Covid parody of Do-Re-Mi and in 3 days had 3 million hits.  Then in May 2021 she uploaded the Menopause Rhapsody which resonated in the wombs of women everywhere with 5.7 million views and climbing. I chat to her about the wonderful feedba...

Send us Fan Mail A bonus minisode all about Shirley's journey with her body, particularly her head. Hair loss, hippy times, a wig's life expectancy and the wonder of teenage kindness.... not.  Support the show

Send us Fan Mail Strap in for my sweariest episode yet with Drag King, Pun King and House of Drag Winner Hugo Grrrl, aka George Fowler. Having lived as a trans man for two years, George candidly filled me in on what it's like to go through Menopause and male puberty at the same time. Also how he can't wait to grow a moustache instead of gluing one on, the horny side effects of testostero...