I'm Kate Shepherd Cohen.
I am a menstrualist.
I believe the menstrual cycle is a guide to help us better understand ourselves & the world we live in.
Come & explore the menstrual cycle with me
(substack)
PMDD & The Path to Systemic Change
Since a somewhat life-melting experience of PMDD over a decade ago (2015) and a desperate need to get some answers to help piece myself back together, I began a quest to uncover and question all aspects of the menstrual cycle.
This path led me into an urge to change mainstream menstrual healthcare and I set up the now award-winning menstrual health & education organisation, Menstrual Cycle Support, offering menstrual literacy as a health intervention on NHS social prescribing.
Making menstrual history
2016 - a year after my life-melting PMDD moment and the collective consciousness was clearly shifting.
With a significant rise in menstrual activism, 2016 is declared is 'The Year of The Period', with a tampon on the front page of Time magazine.
I quickly found that my solo quest into understanding the menstrual cycle was no such thing - I was part of a rapidly emerging global menstrual movement (or, what I call, menstrualism). Emerging statistics shows the extent of menstrual suffering of women everywhere.
Pioneering menstrual health
As Founder of Menstrual Cycle Support, I've been kindly recognised as a 'menstrual health pioneer', receiving international innovation awards for bringing menstrual literacy into mainstream healthcare through NHS social prescribing.
We've supported over a 1000 people with their menstrual cycle and our free online menstrual cycle awareness courses for adults and for teens are on referral in over 500 GP surgeries across the UK and in several schools.
The evidence informed courses, underpinned by therapeutic practice, are inspired by the post-Jungian teachings of my wonderful friends and mentors Alexandra Pope & Sjanie Hugo Wurlitzer of Red School.
As 'menstrualists', we sit squarely on the shoulders of a 100 years of feminism.
This is our moment to question the structures in society that stigmatise the menstrual cycle, and make us suffer so.
It is our opportunity to imaginatively explore what happens when the menstrual cycle is respected? How could our lives be different?
We're all menstrual pioneers
But I believe any of us who venture into the depths of the menstrual cycle, seeking to understand it (and change how we think about it), is a pioneer - a menstrualist -in their own right.
In such a stigmatised field, even simply talking about it is not always easy - and it's important for us to recognise that, historically speaking, we're all treading new ground simply by bringing the menstrual cycle out into the open. This takes some courage and I'm comforted that I'm not alone in this journey.
A rich and rewarding exploration
Despite the stigma, I've found exploring the menstrual cycle through and beyond the biology can be an unbelievably rich and rewarding experience.
Even after a decade in menstrual cycle journeying (and regardless of the many cycles where I've experienced my own pain), I still find its possibilities mind-blowingly, spine-tingly inspiring.
Artist & Performer
In 2026, driven by a desire to express the more creative side of my experience I performed my spoken word piece and original song: I am a Menstrualist at the Menstruation Research Network international conference (Brighton Medical School) and in the Red Sea Travel Agency Tent at Shambala Festival.
Along the way, I've been collecting 'I am' hand stencils as a form of ongoing participatory art.
Travels With a Menstrualist
Prior to menstrual health, I spent a decade in international conservation and ecotourism, travelling all over the world to work with Indigenous and locally-led projects.
My thinking about the menstrual cycle is hugely influenced by the variety of ecosystems and landscapes I visited.
I bring the traveller's curiosity to my substack newsletter:
Come and explore with me:
