Egg freezing is sold as a way for women to hack their fertility and buy some more time on the biological clock. Fertility companies are marketing the procedure as an insurance policy, but some experts argue it's better thought of as a lottery. Rates of egg freezing have almost doubled in recent years but the number of people coming back to use those eggs are staggeringly low and even then, there's no guarantee of a baby. Then there's the cost, between $5000-$10,000 per cycle. Alongside egg...

Samhita had it all. As the executive editor of Teen Vogue she was living the Devil Wears Prada life — fashion shows, fancy dinners and towering heels. She was a girlboss. But at the height of her success, cracks began to appear. She was anxious, burnt out and her body was falling apart. But Samhita was at New York Fashion Week in a fur coat and clutching a Gucci handbag, having just put Malala Yousafzai on the cover of her magazine, who was she to complain? After spending a lifetime trying...

There's an expectation that couples share a bed, but what if sleep isn't compatible with being in the same room as your other half? Maybe they snore, maybe they starfish, or maybe you just need a few hours without another human touching you. Is a sleep divorce, AKA, having separate bedrooms, the answer? There's a trend towards normalising sleeping separately from your partner. Cameron Diaz is doing it. So are the Beckhams. But does this arrangement spell the end of sex and intimacy? Or does...

Ladies is making a special series about WTF happens when we go through perimenopause and how to make it to the other side intact. There’s a ton of information out there about this phase, some of it confusing, a lot of it nonsense. Never fear, we’re here to help you sort fact from fanny fart! We want to hear your stories of change, from what’s going on with your bodies and brains, to sex and relationships. Has your libido hidden in a cupboard? Is the sound of your children fighting enough to...

Is Ozempic the drug of our lifetime? Since it burst onto the scene it's become synonymous with weight loss, with everyone from A-list celebrities to your next-door neighbour rapidly slimming down. The popularity of the drug and others like it such as Mounjaro and Wegovy, has led to demand outstripping supply, with the price of these medications falling out of reach for some.  And along with the cheekbones Ozempic face has unearthed, it's also forcing us to have some uncomfortable...

There aren't many people on your Instagram feed who are as loved and as loathed as Abbie Chatfield. Ever since Abbie shot to fame as the slut-shamed villain on The Bachelor Australia in 2019, she's been a public and controversial figure who's hard to look away from. Five years and almost 500K followers later, Abbie's built an empire on sharing her trauma dumps, UTIs, political rants and sexcapades. Abbie's openness has earnt her lots of fans but it's also made her the target of sexist and...

What if your man has another, equally important woman in his life: his mum? For some sons, the aprons strings are tied so tight, it’s impossible to compete with mummy. She’s his number one fan, dotes on him and interferes in his life, including his relationships. It’s not sexy. So, can a mama’s boy ever reform and stand on their own two feet in a relationship? Or will you always come off second best? Yumi Stynes and Jess McGuire lay down the law when it comes to being with a mama’s boy....

As we get older, wiser, more resilient, and better placed to back seat drive, the world does not reward us. Or our grey hair. If the advances of human progress can make a potato chip taste like a beef rendang curry, why are women still, after all this time and progress, so judged by the way we look? The Australasian College of Cosmetic Surgery estimates Australians spend around $1 billion a year on cosmetic procedures. We're talking facelifts, tummy tucks, brow lifts, neck lifts,...

Aubrey Gordon is a fat woman. She's not on a diet or trying to get thinner and that pisses some people off, but she's done apologising. This self-acceptance has been hard fought. All her life, Aubrey has had to swallow comments about her size from strangers and family alike. Like all of us, she was force-fed the idea that there is only one ideal body: a thin one. Aubrey's resistance started with her blog, Your Fat Friend, where she wrote about what it's like to live in the world as a fat...

You're on a date and there's a spark, the chat is great, the vibes are flowing. But come the time to disrobe, all that potential sexual brilliance comes crashing down. They're a dud root. So what on earth do you do if you've got a connection with someone, but they're not rocking your socks off? How do you have a conversation about what you like, without hurting their feelings? And can you ever turn a jackhammer into a magical orgasm wand? Yumi Stynes and sex therapist Aleks Trkulja get under...

The Other Woman. The bit on the side. Side hoe. She's the biggest villain of them all. She's probably younger, hotter and she's left the girl-code far behind, because THAT woman is stealing your man, girl. So, who is 'the other woman' and what's driving her towards married men anyway? In this episode, Yumi sits down with women dating men who are teken and finds out how they navigate their own messy relationships and emotions.

Jill Stark spent most of her life defined by alcohol. Either as a hard-drinking party girl, spurred on by a culture of drinking as a journalist, or as the poster child for sobriety, trapped by a public identity that revolved around abstinence. Yumi and Jill talk about her journey to genuine sobriety on her own terms, and how she has learned who she is without booze.    Resources: National Alcohol and Other Drug Hotline 1800 250 015  Alcoholics Anonymous:  https://aa.org.au/  1300 222...

We’re all about labia love here at Ladies, but it seems that some women are less than enthusiastic about their lower lips.  So what’s the real deal on the labiaplasty? Will cosmetic surgery really help restore the labia love to those who just aren’t feeling it? Yumi is here to unpack the problems with our flaps and give us the low-down on the down-there surgery.  

Tick, tock, tick, tock... can you hear that? It’s your biological clock and it’s about to blow!  For some, deciding whether to have a baby isn’t just about fertility, it’s also about weighing up whether becoming a parent is the path best taken.   Never fear, Yumi Stynes has perched herself behind the mic to hold your hand and navigate this tricky time-bomb. 

At 31, Jamila Rizvi’s life changed forever. The discovery of a rare brain tumour knocked the ass-kicking, over-achieving media advisor and young mum sideways.   Jamila had two rounds of brain surgery, followed by radiation, and now lives with chronic health conditions. She’s had to re-map what life looks like and let go of the idea that she can control what lies ahead.  Despite the challenges, Jamila’s found strength in herself and by leaning on those closest to her. In this episode, Jamila...

We all have days when we look in the mirror and think “who is that hideous moll staring back at me??” But what if those days are constant and you feel like a loser in the attractiveness lottery?   Let’s face it, being hot is a social currency and the pressure to look a certain way as a woman is constant. So how can we let go of the ideal beauty standard (whatever that is on a given day) and learn to love the image looking back at us?   Yumi Stynes is here with her gal pals Myf Warhurst and...

Perimenopause can be bad for your health. It’s not just the physical symptoms like weight gain, insomnia, exhaustion and loss of sex drive that can knock women sideways, the mental health impacts can be immense as well.  Hormone fluctuations during this period can lead to mood swings, anxiety, brain fog and depression. To make matters worse, these symptoms are often misdiagnosed and mistreated.   Help is at hand though! Yumi Stynes becomes an honourary member of the club and gets the 411 on...

Have you ever had a sexual dry spell? And when we say dry, we mean years and years. Getting naked and doing the bedroom rodeo with another person can be daunting at the best of times, but especially if it’s been such a long time you’re worried you may have forgotten how to ride the horse.   Anxieties begin to take over...Will everything work like it used to? What if they don’t like my body? And what if the dog walks in?   So, how can you break the dry spell and get back in the saddle? Yumi...

In life, there are a lot of random rules women stick to. One of them is not telling loved ones about a pregnancy until after the first trimester. But why??? The answer is more often than not, miscarriage.  

Being in love feels so damn good, right? But what if you fall so deeply into your relationship, you start to forget who you are?  

Swipe left, swipe right, match, meet, hook up, repeat. We all know the dating dance, but is it really serving us as women? Enter Hannah Ferguson, the 25-year-old media queen who isn’t afraid to tell us how it is.   When Hannah was in her late teens and dating for the first time, Tinder ruled the scene and sex was available at the swipe of a finger. But a string of sub-par experiences left her wondering if hookup culture is selling women a lie. Have we come to expect scraps because that's...

Women bear the load of most of the invisible (thankless) work in a household. And that shit gets heavy.   School lunches, laundry, dentist appointments, shopping, snot-wiping, cleaning, care-giving – and don’t forget to get those 10k steps in while you’re at it!  We're exhausted just thinking about it.   Yumi dishes out advice on how to even out the mental load and take the weight off your shoulders.   If you’ve got a snag in your life that you just can’t figure out, let us take on the...

What if your appetite for sex was insatiable? Would you love to be boning every day, multiple times a day?   There's this idea that it's men that are always lusting after sex. But guess what? Women can be horn dogs too! But that horniness often comes with the label "slutty".  Yumi Stynes chats to women who are relishing their pleasure and enjoying plenty of orgasms while they’re at it.  

When you’re stuck in the daily grind of working-mum life, sometimes it can be hard not to feel like a s****y mum.   School lunches, getting them dressed (FFS), raising good humans, endless meetings – it's exhausting and soul-destroying.  Yumi has some advice to ease the mum-guilt, when your heart is being yanked in opposite directions and backing away from work isn’t an option.   If you’ve got a problem that not even your girl gang can help you solve, let us take on the burden! Send an...