If there’s one thing we can all agree on, it’s that periods are terrifying. Well, men have certainly seemed to think so. All the way back to Roman times, the male chroniclers of the human condition have agreed on one thing: menstruation is unseemly, ungodly and just plain horrible. The resulting taboo means we know really very little about periods, with obvious knock-on consequences for women’s health. Now, researchers are investigating the healing powers of period blood, and how it could hold the key to developing treatments for conditions like endometriosis. In this episode, the Visible Women team asks: what could we gain from breaking the taboo over periods.

Dr Noémie Elhadad tells us how her experience with endometriosis led her to create an app, PHENDO, that is now collecting data on the condition – and using AI to improve women’s lives

The standard piano keyboard is too big for 87% of women and 25% of men, limiting the range of pieces they can play. But how did pianos end up this size? Is it time we came up with an alternative? The Visible Women team investigates.