Just Women Talking Shit
Just Women Talking Shit is your go-to self-help podcast for real talk on personal & spiritual growth.
Hosted by Jacquelynn Cotten, personal evolution mentor, retreat leader, speaker, & founder of Spiritual Support System, this podcast features juicy interviews with badass, one-of-a-kind women.
We dive deep into the good 💩, bad 💩, weird 💩, & life 💩, offering insights & inspiration to help you live a more authentic, fulfilled life. Join us for relatable stories, expert advice, & practical tips on overcoming challenges, building resilience, & embracing your true self.
Tune in & start your journey towards personal evolution today!
Just Women Talking Shit
Pelvic Health & Empowerment with Heather Florio
Your pelvic floor is not a mystery—it’s a masterpiece of support, sensation, and stability that quietly shapes how you move, pee, and experience pleasure. We sit down with Heather Florio, CEO of Desert Harvest, to demystify the “hammock” of muscles that holds your organs, why tension often masquerades as strength, and how to fix pain without making it worse. From birth recovery to everyday stress, we map the signals of dysfunction—leaking, painful sex, low back aches—and share practical ways to release first, then rebuild.
Heather brings two decades of global education and research to the mic, translating clinical insights into everyday steps. We talk pelvic wands and why glass can be a cleaner, safer choice than silicone. We unpack tantric-informed breath and sensory pacing to calm the nervous system and increase orgasm quality. We even challenge a common myth: sometimes Kegels are the villain if your floor is already too tight. Consider this your toolkit for resolving hypertonicity, finding comfort, and restoring confidence.
Then we get chemical: vaginal pH and osmolality. You’ll learn why an isoosmolar lubricant around 290 mOsm/kg protects your epithelial barrier, how many popular lubes overshoot into tissue-damaging territory, and how to spot red flags on labels. We cover FDA clearance, biome-matched washes and wipes, smarter strategies for recurrent UTIs, and new, chemical-free period wear designed from aloe-based fabrics. Along the way, we tackle sexual shame, advocate for pelvic PT as standard prenatal care, and share ways to raise kids with body literacy and consent as their compass.
If you’re ready to replace confusion with clarity—and pain with possibility—this conversation gives you science you can feel. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs it, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway so we can keep these essential conversations flowing.
Find Desert Harvest online at:
https://desertharvest.com/
https://www.instagram.com/desertharvestaloevera/
Disclaimer: This podcast is for entertainment and informational purposes only. The views, opinions, and discussions expressed by the hosts and guests are their own and do not constitute professional advice or services. Listeners should not rely on the content as a substitute for consultation with qualified professionals in areas such as medical, legal, financial, or mental health matters. Always seek the advice of an appropriate licensed professional for any questions or concerns you may have.
And hey Heather, how are you doing?
SPEAKER_01:I'm doing good. How about yourself?
SPEAKER_00:Doing well. Maybe peeling myself an orange while I get to know ya. How's first off, where are you located? I'm in Mississippi. I'm in Colorado, in the U.S. I always have to check because sometimes I'll get people from across the world and I'm like, whoa, I didn't know that was a place. So well, what's the weather like today in Colorado? It's gorgeous.
SPEAKER_01:It's gonna be almost 70 degrees here today. It's like, bring out the spring.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, I'm here for it. I just started, I'm probably well, I am late in the season, but I started some seeds last week. And so spring is probably my favorite because it's I don't know, it's so joyful. All the little butterflies start coming out and strawberries soon. Strawberries, yes. I'm here for all the fruit for sure. Oh, but I've always wanted to visit Colorado. Have you been there? Is that where you're from?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I'm actually originally from here. We lost our place in a fire in 2013, and we've been bouncing around the country and just came back to Colorado at the beginning of this year. So full circle. We were in North Carolina for a while until I found out humidity's not my thing.
SPEAKER_00:Um hate Mississippi so much.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yeah. North Carolina is enough, and my my uh my family's in Tennessee, so visiting them is enough. So, but we went up to New England, uh, where my husband's from for a little while, and then again, it was just let's go back to Colorado.
SPEAKER_00:Well, cool. If you will take just a moment to introduce yourself to my wonderful audience of just women talking shit. I'm so honored to have you here today, and I can't wait to to pick your brain on um what was you wanting to talk about and then pelvic and sexual health and all these kinds of things. It's I don't know much about the pelvic floor in general, and I've had two babies, so I feel like I have a lot to learn today. But feel introduce yourself and just tell us a little bit about yourself.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, definitely. So my name is Heather Florida. I'm the CEO of Desert Harvest, um, and we doing pelvic and sexual health products, um, clinical research. I do educational talks all over the world, and so we've been doing that now for about 31 years. We started in 1993, going on 32. And um, and so we get the joy of getting to educate women all over the world about their bodies and how to take care of them, and then providing them with the necessary tools to be able to do so or directing them to the resources.
SPEAKER_00:So, are you the founder of this company? I read something second generational. Yes.
SPEAKER_01:So um we started, it was in high school in '93 when it started. And and so I I've been in some way or another, but it's a company. We just and uh in 2012, my parents uh were like I'm gonna retire. It's your turn to take over, and uh so I did, and I've loved every minute of it. How freaking cool!
SPEAKER_00:I love that so much that your parents were able to to leave for you and that there's somebody to take over. Super cool.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, my son's there now, so it's even better.
SPEAKER_00:So I love that. That's like one of my dreams, is too, however, it's long story short, I'm a what we call like a serial entrepreneur. I I just have for myself, and so I've throughout the years been in several things, and I feel like everybody's um end game that is to build some big company and some big legacy and be able to leave that for their kids and like bring them in. So I think that's super cool. Um when you were in I bet you didn't think well, maybe you did. Did you ever think that you would be in this industry or like in sexual or anything like that in general when you were younger?
SPEAKER_01:Because I know what do you want to be when you grow up, Heather? So I love music and and so you know I I you know started with Desert Artist in 1993 and always helped. Um, you know, a conversation for me. I was doing music. I was working in the music industry, um, doing front house operations for music event, um, venues, private events for musicians. Um, I lived a whole other life. And and then got a nine to five job and stopped working like crazy audit, maybe getting sleep every 72 hours. Um, and so you know, I think chose like the perfect. So, you know, during 2012, you know, we're starting to slowly eke out of our last economic recession. Most venues were shuttered, there wasn't a lot going on, people weren't spending excess cash. Um, and and my mother's like, you don't have a lot of work anyway. So, like, so you'd come here full-time, take over, and let me retire.
SPEAKER_00:Oh my gosh, super cool though. It's it's interesting life plays out. I'm always idiot so what what what they would be when they were little, and then what they turn out to be. Not not that everything would be so many things, but it's still super cool to like just go and think about it for a second. Oh, well, where do we begin? I what do you need to know as a woman about the pelvic region? Because I I don't feel like I know a lot. I feel like there's a lot going on down there, but I don't know much about it. So it it is hammock.
SPEAKER_01:It is it's your hammock to all of your organs, to your it's holding everything in place. So you've got to think how critical that hammock is. And and no matter what region, it's connected to your entire musculoskeletal system. So if you're sitting there and and in a different part of the body, such as, for instance, with our pelvic wands, we work with a lot of the UK football teams um in the UK, and they're required to use our pelvic wands because it gets them out on and do pelvic floor physical therapy because it gets them out onto the field three times faster than if they had not done pelvic floor physical therapy. So and that's injury anywhere in their body.
SPEAKER_00:Well, that's interesting. What is a pelvic wand?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so um utilizing a wand, so we utilize there are there are in the market, but we actually were the first to develop um a pelvic in the early 2000s. If we want to go back to sex toys, that's a different story. But um you utilizing an actual purpose. But in this case, this is an S-curved wand, um, we typically e boresilic glass type, and that is because it's completely non-porous. You can heat it, you can cool it, um, it's it's keep clean. And whereas, you know, silicone we typically see with our sex toys, with other pelvic wands that exist out on the market nowadays, um, you know, the medical-grade silicone. Well, even that medical grade silicone all the time becomes porous and over time begins to degrade. And so, if you're not very careful about how you clean that, how you take care of it, um, you can introduce bacteria into your vaginal biome. And so as a result, um, with pelvic we're very um upfront, that is why we utilize glass for all of ours. Um, and we're ready to introduce some new ones. We actually just purchased um last year a company called Therouant, um, which was new brand, and we liked um some of the designs because they can also work very well for sexual function and hitting very deep trigger spots and things like that, as well as reaching further back um pelvic floor. And um, so we're in the middle of developing uh a few more as well. Right now we have the two, which is one is a regular size, and what pelvic wands utilize, I guess I should start there a little bit, is that they help reduce um muscle. So your muscles, when you get an injury, you're giving birth, um, you're in a lot of pelvic pain, menastration, for instance, every month, um, your your becomes like the it's you know, tightened dish rag. And as a result, that hypertonic pelvic floor needs to be released and then strengthened back up. But when people start getting pelvic pain, they start thinking, oh, I need to go to Kegels. And that is not the case. Um, if you're doing Kegels and you have a hypertonic pelvic floor, you are going to make the issue worse. You have to be able to release the muscles and then strengthen them back up with Kegel type exercises.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. If we go back to can what can you explain to my audience what like the actual floor is so we can understand that a little bit?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so definitely. There are a variety of different muscles that have nerve endings and they're all running and like acting as sitting in your sac is sacrum and literally holding everything in place. And you've got your um levitator ani kind of is it's right there kind of between you and your your vaginal. And that is kind of the the the sweet spot in which everything kind of connects. So the perennium, let's say for instance, when you're giving birth can help that tissue, help prevent tears, but also utilizing pelvic floor physical therapy before you give birth should be a required requirement. Because what that does is when you have a stronger pelvic floor, we see less issues and incidences afterwards in clinical research of endometriosis, uterine fibroids, um, PCOS. We see a lot of less, and then we see a lot less damage to the pelvic floors because this, like I said, is is holding in all of your organs, and this is all of the musculature that sits down at that base, um, your root. And and like I said over and over again, it is your hammock, and so it is really important that you protect that hammock, that you keep that hammock toned, um, and that you maintain, you know, use yoga, things like that. A lot of pelvic floor exercises, and even what you see as kegels, are born out of yogic exercises. Because if you think about it, you always have one part of your body that's engaged, and you have one part of your body in yoga that is always relaxed. And this is what you're trying to achieve is a balance between strength and relaxation within the pelvic floor, so that then you don't experience a lot of people think that when they're having they, you know, you can very much radiating pain, and you might think it's your bladder. Um, it could be coming from, you know, your, you know, you many different nerves running directly through your pelvic floor, and and it via the vagus nerve also that runs as this super highway that runs from your brain all the way to your pelvic floor to root all the way down. And so this is this idea is fundamentally is this super highway is communicating. And if the strength of your pelvic floor is is is gonna have radiating pain in all different types of the body, um different parts of body, as well as if you have an injury in a different part of your body, you might feel it in your pelvic floor. So if you've ever thought of like you have a car accident and and you up and you're like, oh, I need a massage, I need to go to a chiropractor, I need something. Think of that happening to your pelvic floor when something happens, when you have a trauma to your body, even when you get into a car accident, that pelvic floor muscles are also tensing up. Um, and this creates a variety of things, a variety of different problems. Even um, you know, called vaginismus, in which your your vagina is so tight, you can't even the vaginal opening, the vestibule becomes so tight that you can't even put a tampon inside of it. Um that sounds painful. That sounds it's horribly painful, um, you know, for all different types of reasons. So addressing when I we and it in within that condition, you really need to address both your mental health and your pelvic health in that situation because a lot of those are trauma-based. Um it as a result of rape. Um, we've seen there was a case study that I listened to once in which a woman, um, this was Christian, abstinence-based, she grew up very much, you don't have sex till marriage, and she gets to that wedding night, and what happens? Her vagina just her vestibule just closes up and says no. Do you know it took her seven years to be able to have sex with her husband as a result of fear-based response? So it's a matter of both psych psychological help as well as pelvic floor help to get her to the point where they could get her, you know, her opening to open.
SPEAKER_00:That is wild. I'm I now understand much better what it means when when someone says pelvic, like pelvic, pelvic health. So what I after hearing all that though, that means that there's good pelvic health and bad pelvic health. Okay. So I'm how because when you said some of those things, I was like, oh, holy shit, this kind of makes sense for me. I've joked with my husband and uh without two, like, well, let's smash, here we go. And we're talking about sex anyway. One of his favorite things is that I am so, I guess, in I don't know if there's a professional word for that, but like tight. And like, I'm glad you like that, but it's when it comes to me, like I'm very uncomfortable. And I've always thought that uh maybe it's like stress or or something like that, but I just feel constantly sucked in. So when I hear women talk about doing kegels, I'm like, I do those permanently. I feel like I'm like always very tense, you know? So because these are things I notice in myself, and it makes it either very pleasurable or not pleasurable because it can take a long time to get comfortable and be able to actually have intercourse. Okay, now I'm thinking like, okay, there's something I talk about. But I know that probably other women are going through that too. So what are what are signs of bad? I don't want to use the word bad, but that our pelvic health is not the best it could be.
SPEAKER_01:Um so definitely, you know, biggest things is is first urinary leakage. Urinary leakage is not normal, and most of the causes are related to pelvic floor dysfunction. Um, and so you're leaking. Um, there was a whole I always try to use this as an example. Helena Bonham Carter. She was filming Harry Potter as Bellatrix, and she was literally, she had just given birth uh the year before, and she was literally just whoosh, leaking while she's filming, can't stop. Um uh there's a female, same thing, leaking when she's lifting. That is not normal, and and that is a sign, it is a clear, clear sign of floor dysfunction. If you are having pain with sex, that is typically also a very clear sign of pelvic floor dysfunction. Pain, sex and pain not be synonymous. You should feel comfortable, and so like what you're talking about, Glenn, with your husband, one of the things that is is I would run off the bat is incorporating some tantric exercises before you engage actual and it and it but not only that, it's also going to increase the level of orgasm and also make you feel much more relaxed and much more comfortable. There are several that are just very meditative practices. A good example I can just I'll briefly describe is let's say you and your husband, he he's he sits in bed, you know, pillows propped up, you know, and and in a tantric practice, you want to engage all of the senses. So, so create some auditory stimulation, the music that gets you in the mood, makes you feel good, candles, lighting, mood, all of that play a very important part. And then when you get those senses, you know, kind of with some prop pillows prop, you straddle him. Not nut no at this point. It becomes about you two sinking each other and at the same time calming your autotomic nervous system. So as a result, you can literally start engaging where he breathes out, you breathe in, and through engage back and forth, so in and out, and you I'm sorry, through orally you're you're doing this, you're doing it back and forth, so you're almost taking in, and at the same time, make sure that you're connecting um, you know, visually, you're looking into others' eyes, and do that for about like 21 breaths and and create of calm and and peace before you age in sexual practice, and this can also help and to heighten sexual function. The other thing that I recommend highly that's also a tantric practice, um, is but this will be really for you, um, but it also can be for him to edge off his orgasm as well, um, because technically, um and and it are two separate things for a man, and they should always they they shouldn't always ejaculate because it's as yeah, and this is whoa, what's happening? You don't know the world at all. It's it's it when it ejaculates, you've got to imagine there's so much nutrients within um, you know, their and as a result, they're actually giving away their energy, they're giving away nutrients out of their body, they're giving power away. So unless you're trying to make babies, there is not a need for a man to always ejaculate. There it is a need for him to orgasm, and men aren't taught how to separate the two and how to create can, and that actually is using their pelvic floor muscles to do kind of what is, and that kind of helps if they learn to kind of create that, it increases their orgasm, but they can also at that same time at that levator anni muscle, they can also control that right there themselves as well, in between their scrotum and their anus, and that can help them from ejaculating. And for you, one of the greatest things is called ocean breathing. And so, yeah, so I'll I'll sort of demonstrate just literally it almost your orgasm, but this actually calms your autotomic nervous system. So if you're getting too heightened too fast, let's say you can utilize this even in masturbation. So realize touch is very important, touching all parts of your vulva, your labia majora, your labia minora, like all touch everywhere. Just go straight for the clitoris, don't go straight for the vaginal opening. You know, play, touch, and then engage in clitoral stimulation. And then you could actually back yourself back off. Um, and it by you motion breathing, which is literally like, and that's taking in a deep breath, letting it all out. And and by doing, you can do it multiple times and keep doing that, you know, in your autotomic nervous system, but you're also holding off your orgasm so that you can continue stimulation and heighten your orgasm at the same time, but also relaxing and calming that pelvic floor.
SPEAKER_00:Carl, I'm gonna be my search history later is gonna be so weird. I'm gonna be looking up so much shit. Oh man, you just blew my mind in so many ways. So we know now I know what a pelvic floor is. Um, I now know can orgasm without ejaculating. Didn't think I'd I've never known that. Um, where do you go from here? Okay, this all leads the company. The company are now leading. And so can you can you know more about how your company twines together with all this and how you're making a difference in the world?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, definitely. Um, I'll start by a little bit going into the vagina. Um and so one of the most important things regarding um vaginal health and is very important for us. So we started with one product specifically for a bladder disorder called interstitial cystitis. Um, that product is SSAV capsules, they're currently undergoing FDA drug approval. Um, and we're really about that. We've been working, and interstitial cystitis is like having a constant UTI that never goes away, debilitatingly painful, the frequency beyond compare, and and predominantly affects women, 25% men. And so it's very important. Um, you know, it for again obviously our demographic became predominantly female. Um, and so we creating and researching and identifying products and ingredients that would make a difference in the vaginal biome. We know that there is, you know, 10 million products nowadays. It just it's just insane past 10 years, how many products have come out, you know, claiming that they something like that. I think I listened to one of your other podcasts where someone was talking about like eating something that makes your vagina smell like pineapple or something. And I was like, yeah, that that's like a perfect love that's out there. Just because someone tells you on a on as in social or on whatever that this product is going to do something for you, doesn't mean it is. And that goes for whether we're just talking sexual lubricants, women's health, menopause, whatever that is, you're you're being peddled everything under the sun. And there is there is simple understand that our vaginal health, when you look at products and you're looking at at what to choose to go inside your vagina, two things are very, very critical. Most people know about pH, um, and that our vagina is acidic, it's ideal uh pH for the vagina is right around 4.5. Um, most products that are on the market these days, whether we're talking soaps, even if we're talking about sperm, um, it's all alkaline. So constantly introducing products to our vaginal biome that are alkaline and throwing off our pH. So that's number one. But number two is osmolality. And this is a conversation that is not happening in our world enough. Um, and in 2016, the true medical study that has been done was done by the World Health Organization for third country sex workers. And they were trying to figure out what they could do to reduce the incidence of STIs and uh bacterial um and infections and found that the osmolality is what prevented and helped with this. And so osmolality is how you have your vaginal wall and you have your epithelial cell layer. Your vaginal wall is your protective barrier inside your vagina. And if you start introducing ingredients that are not what is called isoosmolar, so isoosmolar is ideal osmolality for a woman's vagina is 290. And you only want your products that insert into your vagina to be plus or minus 80 points, according to the World Health Organization. And like I said, the only study that's been done. I will tell you right now, most of the products that are out there or in sexual lubricants that are on the market, very common names that you probably know and see in the store every day, um 10,000, 9,000, 2,000. This is their osmolality. So what happens? And then we have some, we have some market that are like 80 um for osmolality, like but those are hypoosmolar. Was the like 10,000, 2000, 9,000? Those are hyper osmolar. So what that means is as whether you go hyper or hypo, your cells begin to dry out as you continually introduce these ingredients, and your vaginal wall literally falls out. And you've just lost your barrier of protection to SDIs, bacteria, fungus. You've just now given them a super highway directly to embed and to cause infection. And the same thing happens anally as well. Um, but the anus is more sensitive less to osmolality and more to pH. If you put in acidic, you're you're having fun and you're playing everything else like that, and you use an acidic vaginal lubricant and you put it in the anus, your epithelial cell layer in your anus instantaneously falls, does not wait. And and so the anus, completely separate of the vaginal biome, the anus is alkaline. And so you need to make sure that you're utilizing products that that that are alkaline for anus, acidic, and and isoosmolar for the vagina.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, so what are we we go to the store, I guess without mentioning any brand names. What are we looking for on boxes then? Because I mean, I got it came to mind and I'm like, oh bullshit. I don't even know what to look for. Like when we read, you know, we go in ingredients all the time, or some of them just do. What do we look for? I wouldn't even know what to look for.
SPEAKER_01:Here is a great thing for you um to look for. So sexual products at all, sexual lubricants, anything that you insert into the vagina, whether you're looking at vaginal um probiotics, you're looking at vaginal moisturizers or things, anything that you insert into the vagina is required to have what's called an FDA clearance for as a medical device. And as a result, as part of the testing to get the FDA medical device clearance, you have to do osmolity testing and pH testing. They have these numbers. If they won't give them to you, and you reach out to the company, you email, you call, whatever, and they won't give them to you, then that's a red flag. Another red flag is there are many companies out there that you see now, if they don't strictly say sexual lubricant and they say play oil, and they only mention vulvas or they only mention, you know, your woman parts. Creative ways in which they are trying to get around the FDA compliance and not spend the money to become FDA compliant and make money off of just putting products out there. So those are good indicators for you if you just see people talking about play and they don't strictly call it a sexual lubricant and they cannot provide you the osmolality or the pH of their product, those are all red flags right there.
SPEAKER_00:So would this is this something to also like find when we look at the box, though?
SPEAKER_01:No, because they're not gonna put it out there unless they got a good number. And I can tell you right now, ours, Allo Glide, it's on the bottle. It says 308, which is which is our natural sexual lure, natural origin sexual lure. And it it it's you know, pH and and there is one other brand that I know out there on the market that's probably on the shelves, um, would be the only brand I'd recommend in the United States. And some allo glide, you called it? Yeah, Desert Harvest Allo Glide. So it is a that is and um there are the and I know that other company as well also puts their number on the bottom. Um that's that's a clear indicator. They're not freely giving you this information and putting this information out there for you to be an educated consumer, all red flex.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, uh again, I never never knew of that. Just so you know, I will be having a vagina wall.
SPEAKER_01:I did this, I did this. They're like, are you saying my pussy's gonna fuck?
SPEAKER_00:Gotta ask. And I'm extra careful with the butt stuff.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, yes. Do not it's it's even fun to start playing and mixing and matching toys and lubricants and everything else like that.
SPEAKER_00:Don't dump dump stuff for them and then the vaginal biome. Oh my god. God, that's just terrifying. Terrifying. Think about it so we're gonna really visual no, she's just I gotta went my whole life without hearing that, but I needed to know it. So that's that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But then we have like an array of other products. We have uh uh aloe rebalance, which is uh natural origin feminine wash. You do. Don't need anything to clean inside the vagina, it's self-cleaning, but the vulva just kind of gives you that sense and freshness that you might not otherwise. And by utilizing just a normal soap that's alkaline, you could be exposing your biome to alkalinity with you know just just transference. You've got a big vaginal there. Um so when you're washing, that's why we created um uh a biomatched uh wash. And then we have the aloe fresh wipes, which are amazing, I swear by these, because I have them in my bathroom, my car, my purse, pick a place, um, by my bedside, like because great because they're made of a viscous, they're all natural origin ingredients. Um, they've got lactobacillus in them. So literally, you can just after sex, um, after pelvic floor physical therapy, void if you have a UTI, just to kind of help rebalance and keep them fresh down there for you.
SPEAKER_00:Sounds nice, sounds refreshing.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, and then we've got the pelvic floor tools as well, like the pelvic ones I mentioned earlier. Uh-huh. Um, I did write a clinician at Duke University called the Musculoskeletal Mystery, How to Solve Your Pelvic Floor Symptoms. That's available on our website. And then we have an entire supplement line that was made to be bladder-friendly, which we're actually excited here in two months. We have a new ingredient that we're getting ready to because we know recurrent UTIs are a common problem. And the standard over-the-counter right now is D. Which in clinical research only shows to bind to E. coli bacteria, nothing else. Um, and so we actually found an ingredient in the wilds of Finland that binds to three, and recent research shows potentially two more, so a total of five bacterias um that it could bind to. So this is gonna have, you know, four times or more that that you would typically get just taking D mannos. Um, and so we're excited about. We also uh actually next week we start um our lunation, which are period. Um, and we develop them because that one, we don't all have to wear granny panties just because we're menstruating. Um and and why can't we be beautiful? Why can't we make them completely chemical free? Um, and so we made a new fabric out of aloe, our aloe plants in our fields in Mexico, and so we actually developed a fabric. So aloe is naturally antibacterial, antifungal, antimicrobial. We also utilized a ginger piece of fabric to um deodorize, and then we a whole bunch of bamboo fabric as well for that soft touch, and then a plant-based lace that will kind of be banded. Really excited to bring those out because every batch of fabric that we get will be sent for testing to show that no chemical ever touched an inch of that fabric.
SPEAKER_00:That's incredible and good to hear because as a mom, I'm finding out I don't know, it's like once you become a mom, you actually you start looking at in care. Now I know about like red dye and all these. And I'm just like, and people don't we we just don't realize how things are covered in chemicals. Like if I got in if I everything, it seems like everything is just stuff full full of chemicals, even food, and it's really scary.
SPEAKER_01:So yeah, what I recommend for products you're looking for personal care products, always check the environmental working group. They have an amazing database of they check for chemicals and they rate the product, uh, it's toxicity of all the products on their website. And then for food, um, of course, following the food babe on on Instagram. She is amazing, and she's the one advocating for our food health and to get this crap out of our food. So um definitely recommend following her on as well, just so that you can head towards a clean life.
SPEAKER_00:I will for sure do that. There's an airplane flying overhead, so if you hear that, just ignore that. I never know if anybody can hear it or not. It's real out to me, but not to everybody else.
SPEAKER_01:I'm not hearing a thing. You'll just have to make airplane sounds to make me get the gist of it.
SPEAKER_00:I think I'm very good at those. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. So cool. I think I have so much more to learn about pelvic kelt still, though. And when you mentioned the whole leaking thing, I've the only leaking I've ever experienced was like after like after having a like that little sneeze thing. But it breaks my heart to think that there are women that have to deal with like that, but on a whole level. Like what you explained sounds terrible. A leaking thing.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and it's awful. And it and just after giving birth, that that that is most causes because in reality we should all be having pelvic floor physical therapy to before giving birth. We actually did a whole campaign um um in the UK where you know the the national health making it a standard of care. Of course, without having socialized medicine here, um, let alone good women's health care in general, like being able to get that our system has been difficult. We're now working in Canada to hopefully be able to do the same thing because you know it's it's very important. Go to the doctor and you're like, okay, if you want to breastfeed, here's a lactation specialist, you need to take these supplements, we need to do all these blood tests to look for genetic this. Oh, and you need to go to pelvic fluorophysical therapy, let me give you a referral. In the UK, it's all in one place, so that there's an entire pregnancy maternal care center where you can get all of this done in one place. They have the PT, you go from one room to the next room to the next room. What should be happening here in the US? And it's not. We need pelvic fluorophysical therapy to be part of the standard of care for pregnancy.
SPEAKER_00:So interesting. And like you said, it's not even introduced before pregnancy. Uh like it's very new to me. Friend mentioned that she was going to like she was therapy and that she also had to get pelvic floor therapy. And I was like, I don't even know what that means. Like no idea what that means.
SPEAKER_01:Most women don't ever be scared of it. That's the one thing I say. Like, yes, imagine yourself, and you don't even have to go to the point. They can start by doing an external exam, especially communicate with your clinician. If you have trauma, if you have fear, let them know that when you go in there, let them know that you are afraid. You, you know, this is going to a typical um, you know, vaginal exam for you. That's very much what it's feel like on initial evaluation. And if you have an amazing pelvic floor physical therapist, they're gonna walk you through this process. And as long as you keep those lines of communication open about what feels good, what doesn't, what you're comfortable with, what you're not whole idea is to get you to learn to get you functional again and then to teach you how to take care of it going forward.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. Besides the leaking and besides pain during sex, are there any like other common um things for to look for as far as having abnormal pelvic help?
SPEAKER_01:There is a variety of things. I mean, you could um friend, you write all the time. Um you that that sitting on the seat all the time can actually um cause pelvic floor dysfunction. So it can sometimes hurt to sit. Um it you and you may, it's my spine, it's my back, and it's my back, and you're like, no, it's your pelvic floor, it's your understanding because and as women, we have so much going on down there that it's hard to isolate. Is this my pelvic floor? Is this my bladder causing pain? Is this my uterus causing pain? Like, what is this my colon causing pain? What is causing pain here? And isolating that can be difficult as a woman, but going to a pelvic floor physical therapist and learning how to feel your own musculature and and feel in there, you can feel think of think of your vaginal opening, a clock, and you can literally feel around based on that clock, feel six o'clock, feel three o'clock over here. You can feel the different muscles and under begin to feel your own musculature, and then at the same time, maybe grab a handheld mirror, you know, that map your vulva vulva, and then understand you can even, as you're feeling there, get to know your own body. We are we are taught shame when it comes to masturbation um in our society, and and this doesn't necessarily be masturbation, although masturbation is also good for you, but um, especially if you don't have a partner, because orgasming is part of health. Sexual, this is part of your sexual function. And if you think about it again with your pelvic floor, if you're tensing up and being like, oh no, I can't have sex, I can't have an orgasm, you tense up and then you release and calm down. And so orgasming can be a very, very good thing for you or your pelvic floor. And if you don't have a partner, there is nothing wrong with self-pleasure. And and also, even if you don't have a partner, no matter what, learn your body because we don't do it when we're young, we're taught a level of shame. We actually support a program called Raising Sexually Healthy Children. Because from birth to nine years, no, they do not see sex like we as adults do. They do not see our private parts as oh, sex. They don't think in that manner. And so as a result, this is just an exploration of self. What feels good on their body, what doesn't feel good on her body. Think about touching a stove. Like you're like, oh, yep, I'm doing that again. But but at the same time, you're like, oh wait, I want to do this again. Like my my I I had kept finding her daughter behind the couch. And I actually praised her because she said, you know, she stopped her husband because she was she was masturbating. She was, she was, you know, in a sense, she was touching her, it felt good to her. And she called it her happy flower. And and and she saw like to go touch happy flower or stuff like that. And and we have to think of, you know, you have your child bathtub, especially if, you know, you're a mom and you got the boy in the bathtub and they're touching themselves and you're like, don't do that, don't do that. Doing from the very beginning, if you stop their self-exploration and it's safe and it's in a safe environment, you're creating sexual shame for them. And and and it would be them to learn and understand their bodies, especially for a woman, because that creates a level of empowerment when after 10 and and you know, you start to become sex. Oh, those boys look good, those girls look good, you know, and and you begin that you are empowered because you understand your body, and you're not like this boy's touching me now, and and do I want this? You know, these whole of them, and instead you go into to a sexual situation with a level of empowerment and be like, no, that doesn't work for me. No, I do not want to do this. Oh, or you go, oh, this is feels good. This is where I want you.
SPEAKER_00:I love your perspective on that because a lot of people do not see it that way. And we have can you hear me yet? Okay, the do not disturb one. Apologize about that. Uh what I was saying, we have a big blended family. I have a daughter from my previous relationship, I have a son with my husband, and he has three boys. So, as you can imagine, there's a lot of penis talk around here, so much penis talk. And my son is obsessed with his penis, he's four, and I think it is the funniest thing because he is so curious about it. And our number one rule is because I, you know, my husband or anybody be like, stop. And I always wanted them to, and it's probably because I come from that sexual shame and that trauma of being in the Bible belt, and I was made an example of when I lost my virginity in the church and whatnot. And so I have always told our boys, my daughter, totally normal, you're gonna love it one day. Just do it in the privacy of your own room. Please, please don't give your mom a heart attack. Do it somewhere else, okay? Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:That's exactly it. It's you it's you're teaching, you don't have to tell them to stop, but you can tell them time and place. You can tell them you are the you are the you are teaching them good to do things, when to do things, all in all different kinds of cases. And and and and masturbation is they need to understand that she was doing that behind the couch and there was a packed living room, my friend's daughter. Like, that might not be such a good thing. Um, and we might be like, let's let's talk about when this is okay to do. And when this is not okay to do. It's it's it's even as a ch open communication with your children, and that's wonderful that you're doing that with your boys. I always my boys are now, and and I had nothing, three boys, and and they literally, I always they know more about a woman's body than than most women probably know. And and and you know, they can my oldest son is married, and you know, even with my daughter, I can be like, you know, I learned this new to try this. I you know, it they're they're experienced pleasure together. And maybe my son doesn't want to hear it from his mom, but my daughter-in-law is like, tell me who cheat codes.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, exactly. Your mother, mother and lovely. I bet. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So it's creating those omens of communication and creating that level of comfort because when you the minute you start shame, you can create a level of unsafety for your children, especially for women, um, that that navigate a world not educated and they don't know and might be coerced into things that they might not feel comfortable doing. But if you because whether you tell no sex before marriage, doesn't necessarily mean that's gonna happen. And if you don't give them the tools, even if you are, you know, you you're Christian, you know, religious be giving them the power and the tools and the knowledge about their own body, they're still gonna end up in those situations at some point, and you should give them the tools for success and empowerment for their own selves.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I it's didn't expect this note, but I think it's empowering that it did because I know a lot of my listeners are moms who have kids, and now listeners are around the world, but as Bible belt people, Mississippi ladies, like we we struggle with these things. What do we who do we talk to? Like, because there's so much, there's much still, and I'm like, I see it so, so, so different.
SPEAKER_01:So different. Whether, you know, I've talked to an old woman and taught her how to use an applicator and insert it into her vagina because she didn't know how to use an applicator. Um, you know, I it all has a question she wants answered and doesn't know where to go to get those answers.
SPEAKER_00:Uh-huh. Have you seen the Grayson Frankie?
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yes. Yes, yes, yes. I love actually did a show with Lily Tomlin back in the day. I love her. Uh yeah, she actually I loved it because, you know, I I had uh this particular venue. I won't go into details, but I was in the green room and I brought Lily something and we got to chatting and I was telling her a story because when I was little, I was I remembered, you know, the day early 80s, she did this skit with um, and my parents took me to see her because she was sitting in the you know, the big giant chair and doing her comedy skit. And I I it never left even a young girl, and so I we were chit-chatting about this. My male boss comes in and like yells at me and tells me to get back to work and da-da-da-da-da-da. And put in his like, she oh yeah, she saw she's she is very female empowerment, and he's got you know, my male boss coming telling me that that I'm wasting her time and T saw, like she's not wasting my time, you're wasting my time. And like, I have loved covers that moment, and I work a lot with organizations that Jane Fonda also supports. So love, love, love long story.
SPEAKER_00:So cool from the beginning on the on this call and talking about like the it being a family kept coming in. And whenever uh Gracie Jane's character created when they started creating that the first the lube, but when she began to masturbate and she was like, My rip, she came back with like a lock trist and they made they made that vibe greater. And so I'm so glad that you knew what I was talking about because yeah, it's such a good show.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, it is, and I I highly recommend Unbound Love if Unbound if you want sex toys. Like they have some of the best, it's woman-owned. Uh she's amazing, and and so someone is for some ultimate sex toys that are made for women by women. That's where I said okay.
SPEAKER_00:The more you know. And we've we covered a lot in this chat so much, like so much stuff. Oh, everybody can do, or if you want to just give information on the company. Can you tell us where to find you at so we can go find all the things?
SPEAKER_01:Yes, definitely. So um, you can definitely check us on our website, desertharvest.com. Um, we don't do a lot of stores because we're recommended by medical professionals a lot of the times, and patients order directly from us, so we're in hospitals and farm, you know, hospital-based pharmacies and that. So we don't do a lot of stores, but you can definitely order on our website. Um, you can give us time, we're on Amazon, everything else like that, of course. The necessary evil. But and the if you ever have any questions just related to female health, you know, concerns, um, pelvic or stuff definitely reach out to us at 800-22-3901. We're not here just to take orders, we're more than happy to answer questions. And all of my staff are amazing, educated, uh, you know, men and women. I'll get on to talk to a woman about her, you know, vagina vulva all day and and how to get it, and same kind of thing. So you don't have to feel that level of shame if you do get a male when you call us, but and you're definitely always welcome to ask for a female if you want.
SPEAKER_00:Super cool. It's been so wonderful having you on, Heather. Oh, thank you so much, Jacqueline. This has been fun. Thank you. I mean, it's the world for you to say that. Well, we're back. All I was gonna do was say it was so great having you on, and I'm gonna go check out the website. Oh, do please let me know. I'm I'm very intrigued now. Very intrigued. Thank you again, listeners. Go find them and thank you again for being on the show.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you. Have a wonderful, wonderful day. Take care.
unknown:Bye.
