Shut up. I love you. Go away.

The complexity of sisters, the silence around a sex drive-boosting pill for women, and the Aussie mum who gave birth to her daughter's baby... at 52. Gulp. Welcome to your weekly dose of MID-spo.

Sep 14, 2024

From L to R: Maya and Kamala, Pippa and Kate, Serena and Venus.

Sisters can be our best friends, our rocks. The only ones who really get us. They can also be the ones we fight with. The ones who know all the bruises to press on and exactly what will happen when they do.

A person who’s kind of the same as us, but also completely, confoundingly, different in every way. The only person who calls us out on our shit to our face, but never behind our back. Unless it’s to our other sister, of course.

They know all the versions of ourselves. The ones who are true and the ones we’ve tried on. They’re our rivals and our cheerleaders, our confidants and our tormentors. They’re the ones for unvarnished truths and fierce defence, and they’re a safe place to put our bad attitude on the worst kind of day.

Some of us have sisters we were born with. Some of us found sisters along the way. They weren’t there at the beginning but just like the real thing, you wouldn’t know how to be without them.

Royal sisters, presidential sisters, sporting sisters… the dynamics may be different on a public stage but at the core is a bond like no other.

“We're very close. And, you know, we support each other and get each other's opinions.” That’s Pippa talking about the newly cancer-free Catherine, Princess of Wales. Or more likely, just ‘Kate’ to her little sister.

And when Kamala Harris stepped off the stage in Philadelphia on Tuesday night, having by all accounts won the presidential debate against a visibly irritated Donald Trump, you can bet that no one congratulated her more loudly than her sister Maya (already being referred to as the ‘First Sister’). Before doling out some brutal ‘feedback’, of course.

“She has created so much electricity, so much optimism, so much joy throughout the nation,” Maya said of the United States Vice President when she spoke at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last month.

While for tennis superstar Serena Williams, the relationship she has with her equally talented sister Venus is simple. “I wouldn't be Serena if there wasn't a Venus.”

Vika and Linda Bull: “Stronger as a unit”.

Then, of course, there’s the Gen X Aussie music icons, Vika and Linda Bull, who talk to Holly Wainwright on the latest episode of Mamamia’s MID podcast about sisters, and how they hold you and shape you and give you something to push back against as you grow into mid.

Frank and funny and no bullshit, the sisters have spent the best part of 40 years on a tour bus together, singing, fighting, and getting around some pretty big messes.

“We protected one another," Vika says. "If we got in sticky situations, one would pull the other one out.”

“Some of the things we've been through together could have driven us apart,” Linda adds. “But for some reason, Vika and I, the good far outweighs the bad and we just really love each other. It's a deep connection. I think if we didn't sing we'd still call each other every day…”

🎧 Want to hear more of Vika and Linda Bull’s conversation about the complexities of sisterhood, including divorce, addiction and fights, while on the road? Follow below:

Read, watch and listen to more:

The tragic story of ‘90s supermodel sisters, Niki and Krissy Taylor.
Lottie Moss on growing up in her famous sister’s shadow.
Missy Higgins fought with her sister. It inspired her biggest song.

Viagra for women is a thing and nobody's talking about it.

Like pretty much every area of women's health, sexual dysfunction is just another thing that's not really spoken about.

And there are a few reasons for this. One is a lack of research into these health issues. Another is the history of gendered notions and stigmas that cloud possible symptoms and diagnoses. Then there's the fact that many women find it embarrassing to talk about their sexual health.

Meaning? The underdiagnosis of sexual health problems. Because while it may be 2024, there's a whole heap of common medical diagnoses and conditions you're probably more likely to miss just because you're a woman.

One of those conditions is female sexual dysfunction (FSD) — a complex disorder that can be caused by a variety of factors, including relationship disorder, orgasm disorder, arousal disorder, pain, hypoactive sexual desire disorder (low libido).

But did you know there's actually a female version of Viagra that can help? Yes, there's a pill on the market to treat women with low sex drive and chances are, you've probably never heard about it…

🎧 Do you need a sex button? What even IS a sex button? Follow to find out on this episode of Mamamia Out Loud.

Read, watch and listen to more:

Butter: Mamamia’s first foray into audio erotica. Cumming soon.
The 3-minute yoga moves that will seriously boost your sex drive.
LISTEN: The Libido Gap

'I had my daughter’s baby at 52.'

Grandma Jasmina about to give birth to daughter Michelle’s baby.

Right now, on the south coast of New South Wales, there are two gorgeous little boys. They’re around a year and a half old, and they’re called Hugo and Spencer.

Hugo loves washing dishes and vacuuming, and he loves birds, and he also loves feeding ducks. Spencer, meanwhile, is a bit of a Usain Bolt in the making, and he’s obsessed with running, and he’ll eat nothing but rice cakes if he’s allowed to and he’ll always tells you if he spots a circle. It’s very important.

Hugo and Spencer live with their very loving parents, Michelle and Jono, and they’re surrounded by a whole gaggle of extended family, including their grandmother Jasmina, and their auntie, Sophie. None of this sounds particularly remarkable, right?

But how Hugo and Spencer came into the world is a unique and unusual story. You see, their grandmother Jasmina and their auntie, Sophie, were also actually their surrogate mothers.

This is a story of loss because Michelle did try to carry her babies herself, and Hugo and Spencer have a big brother named Ralph. But it is also a story of great sacrifice and generosity, of silliness, of motherhood, of grandmotherhood. Really, this is a love story like no other.

After watching her daughter go through such trauma, Jasmina says offering to be Michelle’s surrogate was an easy decision.

“I thought, I could carry a baby for them. I told my husband my idea of carrying our grandchild. He said, ‘Don’t be ridiculous. Do you know how old you are? You can’t do that.’

“I said, ‘I can, I can…”

🎧 Follow below to hear more of Mia Freedman’s funny, touching, and ultimately life-affirming, conversation with Jasmina and Michelle on the latest episode of No Filter.

Read, watch and listen to more:

I’m one of very few Australian surrogates. This is what people don’t understand.
Kate saw a couple asking for a surrogate on Facebook. So she DM’d them.
We had to consider the worst case scenario. When your friend is your surrogate.