The DTA Podcast

Katherine Glyde is a 36-year-old from just outside London who had a total abdominal hysterectomy after a cervical cancer diagnosis. What started as a routine smear test led to discovering fibroids that had degenerated into cancer, requiring an emergency total hysterectomy. Now on HRT with minimal medical support, Katherine is navigating surgical menopause in her thirties while most of her friends...

In today's episode, Amy is joined by Simon Salt. Simon is a speaker, writer, certified menopause coach, and creator of The Quiet Transition—a Substack dedicated to helping men understand and support the women in their lives through perimenopause and menopause. Eight years ago, his wife entered perimenopause and spent four years being dismissed by doctors before finally getting a diagnosis. Th...

In today's episode, Amy is joined by Melissa Melia Dunn—a registered psychotherapist in Hamilton, Ontario, with a private practice supporting teens, adults, and couples. She has a specific niche: women and couples experiencing chronic pelvic pain and endometriosis. She wasn't always a therapist—she spent years in event planning, working with organizations like Free the Children and Lulul...

Shayne Henderson is a Registered Massage Therapist from Collingwood, Ontario, who spent 25 years helping women recover from trauma—especially postpartum and C-section trauma. She's also a licensed finance broker in the insurance sector. What connects these two seemingly different careers? Her belief that everything—our bodies, our nervous systems, our relationship with money—is interconnected...

Lily Thrope is a licensed clinical social worker and certified intuitive eating counselor with a private practice in Manhattan. She specializes in eating disorders, body image, and women's health—and she came to this work because she lived it. She got her period at 10, spent two decades battling an eating disorder that no doctor caught, and it wasn't until a friend finally named it that...

Amy is joined today by Melanie Sutherland — the CEO and founder of Body Co, a multidisciplinary clinic in Toronto. She is also a recognized pelvic health & perinatal physiotherapist. Melanie started her clinic 12 years ago because she got tired of being shuttled between different practitioners who never talked to each other. She never planned to work in pelvic health — until a humbling moment...

Alicia Tone is a PhD in ovarian cancer biology, the Director of Research at Ovarian Cancer Canada, and the founder of Run for Her —a trail running event that's raised over $120,000 since 2020. What started as a solo half-marathon fundraiser during COVID turned into something bigger: a community-driven event that brings together patient advocates, local businesses, and women who want to change...

Jill Mueller is a pelvic floor physiotherapist from Hamilton, Ontario, and she has endometriosis. She had surgery to treat it... and it didn't work. Instead of accepting that, she went looking for answers and discovered something that changed everything about how she treats women with endo: the nervous system. Now she's not only treating patients but has co-founded an interdisciplinary p...

In this episode, Amy is joined by Marie Berry, the founder of YVO — a women's wellness brand focused on bone health. It all started with an osteopenia diagnosis; Marie was active, athletic, doing triathlons and playing tennis, but a scan revealed something that didn't add up: her bone density was way lower than it should be for her age. So, she started walking with a weighted vest to bui...

Rashidah is a registered nurse, certified nurse midwife, lactation consultant, and doula from Chicago with 30 years in women's health. She spent decades in labor and delivery, taught nursing students for 20 years, and recently retired to do what she's always wanted—be a postpartum doula and lactation consultant. But Rashidah also has her own story. She spent years managing heavy periods...

In this episode, Amy is joined by Noa, a 23-year-old college student from Chicago living with PCOS. At 13, she and her identical twin sister gained 50 pounds overnight with no change to diet or exercise. After a year and a half of being dismissed by general practitioners—told to just exercise and eat better—a gynecologist finally put the pieces together. It turns out PCOS runs in her family. Her t...

Wendy Petties is a native New Yorker, psychologist, and founder of Sexy Money—built on one radical belief: pleasure can save your life. In this episode with Amy, Wendy holds nothing back. After 11 years fighting for fertility, a hysterectomy at 40, bankruptcy, and harassment at work that left her unable to get out of bed, Wendy reconnected with what she'd known in her 20s about pleasure. Not...

In this episode, Amy is joined by Laura, a marketing executive in Toronto, who spent three decades managing a secret that controlled every decision she made. Starting with pre-cervical cancer surgery in her 20s, she had five surgeries in her 30s and 40s to remove polyps and fibroids—all while climbing the corporate ladder and dating as a single woman. She couldn't tell anyone at work for fear...

In this episode of Down There Aware, Amy is joined by Yolanda, who shares her nine-year infertility battle—3 IVFs and 2 IUI's, and not a single pregnancy. No doctor ever told her that egg quality crashes at 35, so she delayed family planning for career and didn't start trying until 37. After three failed cycles at her first clinic, she switched to a second one that discovered she has thr...

Seanna Thomas, a holistic nutritionist and TV personality on Meal Prep Mondays (CP24), joins Amy to break down the nonsense about women's nutrition in perimenopause. Instead of promising perfection, Seanna teaches practical, moderation-based nutrition—protein, fiber, hydration—without the guilt. She talks about her journey from "buzzkill hockey snack mom" to building a business that...

In this episode of Down There Aware, Natalie Jeanson joins Amy to share her devastating 10-year journey of being dismissed by doctors despite meticulous self-documentation and persistent advocacy. Natalie opens up about dismissive allergic reactions to birth control, a traumatic IUD insertion, PCOS diagnosis, and the workplace discrimination that comes with invisible chronic pain. She talks about...

Welcome to The Down There Aware Podcast with Amy Milne. In our first episode, Amy opens up about her deeply personal journey through three decades of undiagnosed endometriosis. From speaking up as a rebellious teenager to battling medical gaslighting as a young woman, Amy takes you through the misdiagnoses, the surgeries, the medications, and the moment a female doctor finally believed her. She sh...

Here's the thing nobody wants to say out loud: For decades, women have been taught that our pain doesn't matter, that our bodies are too complicated, that we should suffer quietly and be grateful for whatever scraps of medical attention we get. I'm done with that. And if you're listening to this, so are you.  Hi, I'm Amy Milne, and I know what it's like to be dismisse...