How can vibrators play a role in healing and self-discovery? In this episode, I sit down with Lara Pack to explore her transformative journey from personal pain to becoming an advocate for women’s health. Lara’s story began with her struggles with vaginismus and sexual pain, which inspired her to create vibrators designed not only for pleasure but for healing and empowerment.

Lara shares how her experience with endometriosis and the lack of adequate support from healthcare providers drove her to develop her company, Elixir Play. With a focus on ethical, body-positive products, Lara is challenging societal taboos and creating tools that help women reclaim their sexual health. Her products are more than just devices—they’re part of a larger mission to bridge the gap between medical advocacy and personal empowerment.

In this candid conversation, we discuss why vibrators deserve a place in medical settings, their benefits for pelvic floor therapy and sexual pain, and the ways they can aid in rehabilitation. Lara also opens up about balancing her advocacy work with her role as a mother and her vision for creating a more inclusive dialogue around women’s sexual health.

This episode is a powerful reminder of the importance of education, innovation, and breaking down stigmas. Lara’s commitment to advocacy and her drive to empower women will leave you inspired and ready to take charge of your own health journey.

Episode Highlights:

• Lara’s journey through vaginismus and how it shaped her mission in sexual health advocacy.
• The untapped potential of vibrators in promoting healing and pelvic floor health.
• Overcoming stigma and breaking taboos in conversations around sexual wellness.
• The challenges Lara faced in developing ethical and inclusive pleasure products.
• Why advocating for women’s health starts with education and open communication.

If you enjoyed this conversation, don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe to the podcast. Share this episode with anyone who could benefit from Lara’s inspiring story and insights. Let’s keep the conversation going and help create a more supportive, informed dialogue around women’s health. Follow us on your favorite podcast platform and leave a review to support the show!

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Hey y'all, it's me, Dr. Samina Arman, Gyno Girl. Welcome to another episode of Gyno Girl Presents Sex Drugs and Hormones. Today I have a very special guest that you guys are gonna enjoy hearing about and all the great work that she's doing in her advocacy for women, as you heard in my intro. But I have Laura Pack and she has agreed to come onto the podcast and share her stories and why she's doing what she's doing. So, you know, I'm excited for you guys to hear that.

Again, I'm Dr. Samina Raman, Gyno Girl on Instagram, and this is my podcast I do. called Gyno Girl Presents Sex, Drugs, and Hormones. And here is to educate so you can advocate for yourself. So please continue to listen to my podcast and join me on other channels. But for now, let's get into it. Let's talk with Laura today. Laura, thank you so much for joining me all the way from Australia, right? I'm so excited.

Thank you so much for having me, really appreciate it.

Laura and I met probably like two years ago at, it Menopause or was it at Ishwish? It was at one of the conferences. Yeah, and we're gonna talk about the amazing work she's doing in advocacy in her side gig on vibrators. But we're also Vaginismus sisters. we're just saying the pain brings us together.

think both, but yeah.

But yeah, I think that I love to, for when people tell their journeys, because I feel like people can learn so much from just how the struggles of others and how they were over to overcome their situations and what they utilize. And those of us in these forms of educating are really here to make sure that people don't make the same mistakes we did, If they can, yeah.

Exactly, if we can.

So yeah, Laura, tell the listeners a little bit about who you are. I mean, they already heard your intro, like, you know, and what brought you into the sexual medicine world.

Yeah, okay cool. Well I'm Lara. I'm a mum of two daughters, now 12 and 8. But I, yeah, I came into this so I had vaginismus as you alluded to when we spoke about before. So I, it was kind of post-kids where all of a sudden it felt extremely painful like knives stabbing me. Went back actually to the obstetrician who delivered my kids and

Yeah.

He tried a few things, but was like, think you just need to go see a pelvic floor physio. One of the things I really struggle with in this area is that it's so complex. So it's psychological, it's physical, it's emotional, it's hard to cure, which means it's hard for a lot of healthcare professionals to deal with it because A, they've got to spend the time to get to know what's going on and then B, it's a long process. went to a great pelvic floor physio. Yes.

Mm-hmm. Right. Yeah.

It wasn't.

It's the biopsychosocial we talk to about, you we always talk about biopsychosocial because that's what sexual function is. It really is a function of your own health, but also like, you know, that's how we have to address it through all the parameters.

Exactly. So I went to public floor physio and we did some work. We used dilators. I hate dilators. I get why they're important. I understand it. I just think, you know, it's like, hey, take this plastic looking phallic thing, put it in you and then relax. I okay? Well, that's an interesting concept. But anyway, she eventually...

Ahem.

And then I realized, yeah. I think what's interesting about dilators is that we really have very little standard on how you should use them. What's the best way? I mean, we have some studies that are there, but I think every PT has their own recommendations and their own way of.

really discussing this with them. Like, you you leave it in this amount of time and then you're to go up to this one. then, you know, because when we talk about vaginismus, again, just for the listeners who are listening for the first time, it's involuntary contraction of your pelvic floor muscle, which sometimes can be primary where people are never able to have anything in their vagina and sometimes can be secondary to something else. So I'm interested to hear a little more about the story because usually if you've had a traumatic birth injury or, you know,

Zatani.

you suffered from, or if you're lactating, you develop sort of a general urinary syndrome of lactation, which I've talked about the general urinary syndrome, menopause and hormone deficiency. And so was all of this vaginismus sort of secondary to the lack of vaginal estrogen if you were lactating and then, you know, how are the muscles treated? Like how are the dilators used? You know, what kind of, you know, there's I think some paradigms on using dilators plus, you know, trigger point injections or baclofen valium or

you know, you know, vaginal Botox. So there's a lot that can be done, but it's really, you know, we always call ourselves sex detectives because you got to get to the bottom and you want to get to the root cause of what the pain generator is. So tell us a little bit more, Laura, like did somebody do that for you? Like get to your root cause.

Yes.

my gosh, no, you're talking and I'm like, no one would say any of this kind of detail. They're just like, you've got a problem. We may or may not be able to fix the problem. but it's true. I think, I mean,

my god, you should come to me. Right. Unfortunately, the majority of patients who suffer go to clinicians who feel that way. You know, it's like they don't know the detective steps.

Absolutely. And I think, you know, it's interesting why I don't necessarily come from medical backgrounds. I don't understand the exact details of what you're saying, but I think of it on a human level where you've got this sexual organ that then all of a sudden becomes very clinical. And one of the things that did happen in my pregnancy, had, I had hyperemesis and then I had, so it diagnosed as irritable uterus. I remember arguing with the doctor, like what uterus is not irritable with

Mmm.

You know that much way than that. I was in hospital a lot. Yeah, your uterus is just, I mean, can you imagine a man and they'd be like, yeah, your penis is irritable. But I was in hospital a lot and had a lot of exams. And I do think that's part of what contributed because this sexual organ all of a sudden became very clinical, all of a sudden had a completely different take on it. Sorry.

That's a new one, I'll go.

your uterus is just irritable, hon. It's okay. Your penis is irritable,

Hmm.

You never had sexual pain in the past. You never had sexual pain before this.

no, didn't have sexual pain before. So it kind of started at this point. And I think there's something in, now I also have a longer history of, I had endometriosis, I had it removed when I was 15, I had surgery, and then I had a blood drain put in and it was in agony. And when I went back to the doctor 10 days later, I was still in pain, he said, I think you're imagining your pain goes to your pain clinic. And that was when I was 16 years old.

you

Thank you.

Okay.

God, of course. It's all in your head, Laura. Yeah. Right. Well, we know with endometriosis, there's a lot of factors with, you know, not only like inflammation and where the implants are, but also the fact that when women are in pain from endometriosis, they're likely, you know, clenching their pelvic floor a lot. And with that pain and that clenching, become, your pelvic floor can become very hypertonic.

All in your head. So I think all these things kind of combine.

And then if you throw in a little bit of anxiety or depression symptoms that come about when people experience too much pain, this is not unlike what a lot of my patients experience. And actually, just as side for you, there's a lot of data to suggest how there's an association with endometriosis and inflammation and potentially increased nerve endings at the vulvar vestibule and whether or not these nerve endings then create mast cells, which then proliferate.

Yeah.

causing, you know, it's a combination of nerve endings and mast cells that happen at the opening, which some people get sort of an acquired nerve pain at the vestibule that then lead to a secondary vaginismus. So there's a lot, you know, that might have been contributing to what you experienced. And so I'm curious to know like, you know, how that evolved for you because, you know, like after the endometriosis surgery, were you kind of pain free and did you have the surgery because you were in pain?

Yeah, absolutely.

See, now I'm getting my sex detective hat on for it.

No, no, give me a sex detective hat on. So I was still in agony. I ended up just going on the pill and not having any periods, but was still in a lot of pain. Ended up having a repeat laparoscopy and what they found was tiny amounts of endometriosis, but actually huge amounts of scar tissue. So I'm type one diabetic, I don't heal brilliantly. And what they were saying is that actually in some ways the surgery itself left this lasting damage. So I ultimately have ended up in a situation where I was on the pill,

you

wow.

Well, that's another factor.

until I decided to get pregnant and then went on an IUD straight after. I genuinely cannot handle the pain of periods and the irregularness of them. I...

Wow, I'm so sorry. And endometriosis is truly a full body disease. Like, you know, we talk about it just being in the pelvis, but, you know, people have what we call catamomile signs or signs during their menstrual cycle where they'll get shortness of breath or chest pain or palpitations or, you know, bowel dysfunction. And, you know, that's, that's, that's, and those, you know, are more advanced cases of endometriosis, but really secondary to some of the inflammation, inflammatory factors we think are associated with endometriosis.

Please.

which affects one out of 10 women. it's not like, and I bet it's more than that. I bet it's more than that.

Exactly. I think it's definitely more than that. I reckon that would be just the ones that actually get tested ultimately. But I've been helping a girl who messaged me, she's 16 now, and she was in so much pain and being dismissed. And she sent me a text through a family friend and said, what should I do? I said, go see this doctor. He was excellent. And she started on some drugs, which didn't work for her. And she's actually about to have surgery. And she's going through this whole process. And it's just, I mean, she's lucky that

for you.

Mm.

I knew her and knew where to send her to, but generally what happens is you go through specialist after specialist after specialist, you go to GPs that don't know. They say, go get an ultrasound. And then if there's nothing on the ultrasound, you don't have anything, but that's ridiculous. Most of time doesn't come up with an ultrasound. So yeah.

Yeah.

You don't have any of that, right? Right, exactly, exactly. Where, you know, unfortunately our diagnosis is, you know, a lot of us go by clinical symptoms and assume that this is endometriosis and try to treat it as such. But obviously, like the traditional gold standard is to have a laparoscopy to assess and then remove tissue and then send it to the pathologist and see what happens. So, we went through all that. You had your baby, little complications around hyperemesis, right?

Exactly. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, so I'd high promises.

I mean, it's significant. I promise this when you have to get hospitalized, that's significant, actually.

Yeah, it was pretty horrific. Not to be confused with morning sickness. But yeah, it was pretty great. So I went through this whole process. So afterwards went to the doctor. So back to the pelvic floor, she suggested using external stimulation with vibrators. And for me, that really helped. And I think at its core level, before we get into any kind of details is that you're stimulating the nerves in the area of getting blood flow.

Right. Right.

Right.

Yep.

And for me, that was enough for the muscles to relax. They always liken it to, if you've got sore shoulders, you go get a massage and someone's kind of putting blood flow back into the area or you put heat on it to try and attract blood flow. It's the same all over our body. It's just for some reason we tend to neglect, you know, any of these areas and not use it. So for me, that worked. It doesn't necessarily work for anyone. I'll put that disclaimer there. I'm not here to say there's this...

Yeah.

Yeah.

magic cure, but it helped to use pre-penetration and during penetration. And so for whatever reason, it helped the muscles for me relax. But I kind of

So you would use a vibrator before having penetration either with the dilators or when you're having intercourse. And then you used it after to maybe even massage or decrease the... Well, you're also, like you said, you're increasing the blood flow. You're all the things that we hope that will help and cause some pleasure at the same time, potentially.

Yes.

Yeah.

Exactly. So the pleasure was a great side benefit of it. So I started looking into it and I wanted, I actually decided I wanted to make my own because I looked at the companies and there were some, there were a couple of great ones, but for anyone who doesn't know, there's literally no regulation around pleasure products. They consider novelty. So you can make anything you want, you can package it up. And I was just unbelievably confronted by that. And I wanted to make my own products that I knew I could trust.

Yep.

no. Uh-huh.

but also brand that I felt I could own. And really what I want to do is bring together the education side of the products because products alone don't work. For some people they may, but really what you need to understand is what's going on in your body at the same time, which is why I want to work with people like you that provide that, right? This is multidisciplinary and multifactional. And so we've really got to look at all of it.

Absolutely. Yeah.

So the reason it's still my side gig is because I refuse to take on any investors because I don't want anyone to have a say. I don't want anyone sitting and breathing down my neck and saying, your sales aren't high enough. You've got to do this. You've got to do that. I want to keep the quality and ethics with the company. And if that means it's never a multimillion dollar, billion dollar company, that's okay. But if it helps the people that buy the products in the meantime, that's the goal.

Right.

So how long did it take you to become sort of like pain free? I'm assuming you're pain free, fingers crossed. Okay. Yeah.

I am pain free. It took about a year, a year of regular visits to pelvic floor of lots of practice at home. And the reason for me was that a lot of it was, was psychological and anticipation. And I find it's interesting. So I actually got a message the other day that I need to go get my pap smear and I'm anxious already. I'm already feeling that like anxiety because for me that's completely clinical. So what I had to separate was clinical, not as fun, but

Mm-hmm. All the way. Yeah. Sure. Sure.

Yeah.

pleasure or penetration different, even though same concept and I say, you context matters. You know, if I say to you, hey, can you lie down? I'm going to take this metal device or plastic device. I'm going to spread your vulva, vagina open. I'm going to insert something in you. You instantly going to clench. It sounds horrible. But if I say, hey, I'm going to go down and I'm going to start massaging around your clitoris and then I'm going to

Yeah.

Yes.

you know, use my fingers and gently open up the opening and then put a vibrator or something, you know, that could be good. And they're technically the same thing is happening, but the context of them in the way they're done is very different. And so I think that's really important to consider. So took about a year and I started developing these products. My first one was a disaster, which was great. I think it's always good to have a failure, you can realize, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, Yeah, yeah.

So I made a heart-shaped vibrator that you could wear in your panties or around your neck. And I thought it'd be fun to have this. Like, no one knows it's a vibrator. I flew over to China. I got on a train with a guy that I'd never met before and went to their factory. And I had a wonderful time, but realized when I met the quality team afterwards, that was my issue, right? I needed the quality team upfront, not after. So I ended up scrapping it and starting again.

Yeah.

And then eventually decided that actually it was the material that mattered to me. So I found a new factory to work with that uses specific type of liquid silicon where the products are quite creamy texture. So normally with products, what you do is you take plastic and you can do any shape and then you just cover it in a layer of silicon. But I find that very hard. And for me, and I don't necessarily speak for all women, but it's a very soft.

tissue area. And the idea of something hard and phallic was just not what my body wanted or needed. So I wanted to create products that actually could bend and flex and move and were soft, but still had the rigidity to hold their shape. And also that were non-phallic because when you start doing the research, you know, know, 20, 25 % of women have experienced sexual trauma. And that's often what leads to the pain.

So the last thing you want to do is say, here, take this phallic looking device and try and create pleasure when actually that's what caused you trauma in the first place. So, you know, really trying to move away from some of these things that are happening and understand what are some of the reasons people are experiencing pain.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's very interesting. And so you came and then, so I mean, how did you go about like even figuring out what kind of design you wanted? what was the final impetus that was like, hey, this is something I need to do. Like why did you, what pushed you into that? Was it because of your just general like unsatisfactory time that you had with what was available?

Yeah.

So...

It was, and it was knowing that if I did it myself, I'd be able to have the ethics behind it. And, you know, I still love people send me emails all the time to say, I can't tell you how much this has changed my life and thank you. And, and husbands emailing saying my wife's really experiencing pain. What would you recommend? And we go through, you know, which product to choose and how to choose. And I, for me, there's just...

Hmm.

nothing in the world that is better than that. So I do anything to be able to offer that to women. And I also, the secondary part of that is going back to having two daughters. There's so much stigma. And it's interesting because I've copped a lot of it, as I'm sure you have been in this world where people are like, you're going to traumatize your kids and how can you do it? And why do you want to talk about vibrators and all these things? And I'm like, well, because I want my children to grow up in a better world than I do.

sure.

You

next generation.

Absolutely. So you obviously did a lot of research trying to get this going. Tell us a little bit about your products then. Well, your company's called Elixir Play, which obviously, the introduction people heard, but just to remind, why did come up with that type of name?

yeah, so it was interesting, right? I get asked that a lot. So, the word elixir actually means a magic potion or spell. And for anyone who's experiencing pain, I remember literally sitting in the doctor's office and saying, but isn't there just some tablet I can take, something that's going to fix this? And of course there isn't. So I was like, okay, well, it's a magic potion spell, then play because as we get older, we forget that sex is supposed to be playful.

If you think to your teens and your early 20s and the, like it was fun and it was enjoyable. And actually part of the solution to having great sex again is to just let go and be playful and forget, you know, forget the tiger marks, stretch marks that we've got all over ourselves and forget how we look at all these things and just be proud and love our bodies and have a bit of fun. And it's not supposed to be serious. It's not supposed to be scheduled into the diary yet.

Yeah.

them.

Yes.

you know, 9 or 5 p.m. for five minutes or 10 minutes or whatever. those two things for me, again, trying to be holistic is about let's make it fun and let's work with all the different tools that we have available to try to make, help women have a better sex life.

Yep, that's wonderful. And so you have a couple of, well, tell us about what kind of products you have. I actually have yours in my studio. good, okay. Good, because I was like, I forgot to bring mine because I told you I was running.

I've got them here so I can show you. So I have three at the moment and one that's about to come out. So the first one here is Amethyst. So this one's more the traditional rabbit. So you said about design, think rabbits have a place from the perspective that they cover both internal and external. Literally after having kids, I was talking to that same doctor and I

said to him, hey, just out of interest is a penis designed for pleasure. I guess the shape designed for pleasure. And he was like, well, actually it doesn't really matter. It's a muscle. So it doesn't make a difference. You probably wouldn't want something harsh and square. So that was fair. But if you look at this here, it's kind of got these flat surfaces. And for me, that's kind of an ode to our bodies are all different shapes and sizes.

And so what you want to do when you're using these products is be able to cover as much surface area as possible, very unsexy, but cover as much surface area so that, you know, for different women using it, you can feel the pleasure in different places. So you're kind of getting more opportunity for it to make contact with your skin and tissue and nerve endings. And then on the outside, kind of the same thing, right? We talk a lot about glands, clitoris, which is right up the top, but for a lot of women,

think about a wishbone, they're feeling their pleasure down the sides. And so you want to be able to kind of cover that and then this move independently. So essentially they can work together. And then I have a lot of women that actually use it externally and just turn it around and use this part here. And it's quite comfortable to hold. So you can go either way. I'm going to turn it on because I think that was the other thing that was really important to me is that I wanted them to be soft. So this is on now.

Yeah

Yeah. Yeah.

sure we can hear it and then if we go up to maximum maximum that's it there. So again I wanted it to you know not have to interrupt your kids not have to sound like I call it a lawnmower in the bedroom. These things are very unsexing. Flatmate sex, exactly why is there a buzzing noise? So that one's Amethyst and then this one here is Ruby. Now Ruby was kind of based on a shoehorn.

Yeah.

What's mom doing? What is mom? She's something.

So again, this was like that owed to products that don't necessarily look like vibrators. So this is a nice intro one. The bulb here can be either for internal or external pleasure. So either works, but the reason it's got the grooves is that your fingers can kind of sit there and then guide for massage. So I'm a big believer in being able to use massage and exploring because the thing is, if you know what feels good for you,

nice okay

You can tell someone else or you can keep doing it for yourself, but you've really got to start with you. And so the best way to do that is massage. And I'll show you here, the creaminess, it just kind of glides against the skin. So I didn't want it. There's a lot of products out there that kind of, you know, you'll be pushing it through and it's like that old soap bar where you're like grinding it against your skin. You want it to move really gently. And then the last one's garnet. So garnet can be used as a cock ring. So this does have a lot of stretch to it.

Yep.

Yeah.

But it's designed to be shaped like a vulva. So the idea is and it's got some grooves on it that kind of opposite on different sides. You can kind of put it wherever it feels good. And then you can also use it as a handheld. So you could hold it like that or you can literally just hold it in the palm of your hand. So really nice external pretty but also functional toy. And again, keeping in mind

trying as best as possible to keep in mind what shapes we're looking for and also the opportunity for it to be able to cover as much area as possible.

And so when we when we post it on YouTube people be able to actually see it otherwise those have to pay attention in the description Or you go to your website, which is what?

Yes, so the website's just www.elixapplay.com so you can get that afterwards. yeah, go to the website, look. Yeah.

Yeah, and it'll be in the show notes. Yeah, it'll be all in the show notes. So how did you end up like coming to Ishwesh and like, you getting involved in the sexual medicine community?

Yeah, so going back to Holistic, my dream, my goal is that this is available when you go see a healthcare professional. I think there's a lot of synergy between what we do. I wanted to go, yeah, exactly, it should be a prescription. It absolutely should. But I went because, well, two reasons. One was to connect with healthcare professionals. The other is the only way that you guys get the opportunity to continue to develop and grow is if we support you.

Yeah, yeah, we've talked about that.

It should be a corruption. Yeah. Yeah, you do. Yeah.

and contribute to your education and learning. So, you know, if none of the companies are willing to actually sponsor healthcare professional education, you don't have as many resources to be able to offer your patients. And so it's got to start somewhere. So I think the synergy works there. I also went for my own learning. It was incredible. I learned so much. ISEWISH was outstanding. I'm very, very much looking forward to coming again either next year, if I can, if not the year after, but.

Yeah.

I

You know, I think it's really important. It's really important to connect and, you know, people spend lots of money putting them in sex toy shops and things and adult shops. And that's great. for me, that's just not the place because I want someone who can have a conversation at the same time and show you how it's going to work and show you how, based on what your needs are, how it can compliment. And so that's a very individual conversation that I believe comes from a healthcare professional.

That'll be a minute.

No, I totally agree with you. I think we both talked about, you know, we should be stocking this in our office and giving it as a prescription and all the things which I'm planning on working with you as with, you know, so people have some accessibility for different types of vibrators, which we know like studies have shown really can help, you know, improve pelvic floor outcomes. Also, like there was a someone that presented an abstract, I want to say last year, Ishwesh on, you know, how to decrease

pain and IUD insertions. And it was Nisha McKenzie actually, she's out of Michigan. And basically she had her patients bring in their own vibrator or she used, you know, clinical vibrator and had them put it out their belly button at the time of insertion. And so it does twofold. One, it distracted them obviously, like, you know, cause they're thinking about, and other thing is like,

Yeah.

For those of you who have listened to my other protests on vestibulodynia, the belly button is a primitive part of the uricus, which is very much the same tissue as the opening of the vagina or the vestibule. So a lot of people can get double, potentially not only distracting them, make it feel better. And therefore they had less pain during the time of their IUD insertions. That's what her abstract showed.

Yep, that's amazing.

So I think vibration is so important. Vibration therapy, all that is very important. And I think it should and will be eventually part of standard of care when it comes to a lot of these pelvic floor and sexual dysfunctions. So I think what you're doing is amazing. Yes. Tell us what else is on the horizon.

Yeah, I forward to that day.

Yeah, so I've got a new product coming out. We've just finished production, so it should be out hopefully the end of this year or early next year. It's kind of a thinner internal external vibrator. So I'm kind of bucking the trend. Everyone's going bigger. I'm going smaller. It's just a good intro toy and still got great vibration for external and internal. But a nice kind of starting and then looking at a long pipeline of different things that we can do. So

I don't need it.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

been over to the factory in August and trying to get an understanding of what people are looking for, what's missing. It's hard because a lot of people want internal and external at the same time, which outside of doing the traditional rabbits, a little challenging to do. But we're just looking at some innovative ways. you know, I love the team that I work with at the factory and most of them are women, which is amazing. It makes a massive difference. So that's great. And then

wow. wow. That's great.

Yeah, kind of trying to create this feedback system, right? Where healthcare professionals are telling me this is what people are looking for. And people are messaging me and emailing me and saying, hey, can you do something like this? But then also going all the way down to what's capable of the factory. And if they've got suggestions based on what we're looking for and trying to understand anatomy a bit more and how we can, know, are we doing designs just because we've always done them or is there something different that we could do? trying to keep all of that in mind.

Mm-hmm.

well, that's amazing. And I always ask my guests, what is your message to women who are trying to navigate? I know, obviously, you're an Australian-based health care system, so it might be a little different navigating because it's socialized medicine there, But what kind of advice do you give other women about how to navigate this journey around sexual pain or these issues that are so highly stigmatized that they're like,

Yeah.

Like, how did you come to your, what advice would you give, guess?

Yeah, I mean, I think there's a few things. I think one of them is always be your own advocate. We know our own bodies and you just, you got to keep going and you got to keep going until you find the right people. Now, I'd argue in the US it's somewhat easier because on Ipswish you can actually find medical practitioners, which is much easier. In Australia, that doesn't exist as much. But I think don't let doctors or healthcare professionals or people ghost you.

No.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

And don't let them make you feel like you're the one that's insane. because I think it's really important. think the other thing that's really important is talk about it. It's the same thing as miscarriage. For some reason, we don't, you know, we don't even tell anyone we're pregnant until 12 weeks in case we have a miscarriage. It's ridiculous. Like why would we not talk about it? Why would we not share the experience? I know for me, when I had a miscarriage, I wanted to find out that other people were in the same situation because it gave me hope that maybe I'd be able to have a baby one day. So I think.

Thank

Yep.

Yeah.

The same thing happens with pelvic pain and sex and the other thing is be hopeful and try different things. It's very, very, very much a multi-faceted approach. So I think finding the right healthcare team, finding the right products, finding the right solution that works for you, finding the right mindset, unfollow all the people on Instagram that are bringing down your day and start following the body positive and healthcare professionals that are...

teaching you and helping you learn to love your body again because we're constantly in the society where we're brought down. But there's a little path to navigate through that I think are really important.

No.

Absolutely, absolutely. Well, that's wonderful, Laura. I appreciate you so much telling your story and what brought you into the journey of the side gig that you are doing, which I hope continues to be very successful for you. You're helping so many women, and you're just such a kind person. So I enjoyed meeting you in person when you came to Chicago last month, or maybe, yeah.

Yeah, loved meeting you. Yeah, last month. Thank you. And thank you for all you do as well. I don't know. You people probably take it for granted listening to your podcast, but you truly are amazing in the advocacy and education that you give people is just out of this world. So it's amazing.

thank you so much. Thank you. Well, you guys are going to hear everything's going be listed on the show notes and where you can contact Laura, where you can get their products and whatever else she tells us to put in there, we will put in there. So thank you guys for joining me today. Remember, I'm Dr. Smeeramon, gyno girl. I'm here to educate so you could advocate for yourself. Please have a good day and join me for my next episode. Yay.