"A pioneer of the menstrual movement... a revolutionary who has been chipping away at the systems that society has outgrown"
Annie Auerbach, Flex: Reinventing Work for a Smarter, Happier life" (Harper Collins)
MENSTRUAL HEALTH PIONEER
CEO & FOUNDER
Kate Shepherd Cohen is an award-winning menstrual health pioneer.
A leading menstrual literacy expert, activist and social entrepreneur, she is Founder & CEO of Health Tech menstrual education organisation Menstrual Cycle Support, credited for being the first to take non-clinical menstrual cycle support into mainstream healthcare in the UK, on referral through the GP on social prescription.
She won Innovator of the Year 2021 at the International Social Prescribing Awards for 'pioneering menstrual health' and is recipient of the Unltd Millennium Award for social entrepreneurs.
Kate is a member of the College of Medicine and Integrative Health, the Society for Menstrual Cycle Research (SMCR), the Alliance for Innovation at the National Academy for Social Prescribing, the Scottish Academy for Social Prescribing. She has presented abstracts at the Menstruation Research Network conference and the 4M Consortium conference for menstrual & mental health.
"Through Menstrual Cycle Support,
I am able to act on my deeply held belief that universal menstrual literacy can ease menstrual suffering, for the benefit of all."
"A rapidly growing global human health & rights movement is eagerly awaiting your findings"
Dr Sally King, Founder Menstrual Matters
CHANGE MAKER
As Founder and CEO of health tech Menstrual Cycle Support, Kate has launched two pioneering menstrual literacy courses in Parliament - the course for adults, at the House of Lords (Oct '22); and, the course for teens, at the House of Commons (Mar '24)
Kate with Dame Lesley Regan, the Women's Health Ambassador (Eng) at the launch of the teens course, in partnership with Endometriosis UK (March '24)
MENSTRUAL CYCLE SUPPORT
ON SOCIAL PRESCRIPTION
If are seeking support with your menstrual cycle please visit www.menstrualcyclesupport.com to access a free online clinically-backed self-guided course (curated and presented by Kate Shepherd Cohen).
If you are really struggling, remember you are not alone.
"I suffered for years (and years) with my menstrual cycle.
I wondered why the doctors didn't prescribe simple menstrual cycle support alongside pills & procedures.
That wondering became a calling"
Kate Shepherd Cohen is credited with creating the world's first menstrual literacy available on referral through the GP surgery on social prescription (self-referral available) through her eHealth menstrual education organisation, Menstrual Cycle Support.
The organisation is born from Kate's experience at the 'coalface of menstrual suffering', guiding those struggling with severe pain and emotional distress to reframe the menstrual cycle experience in workshops & 1:1s.
The free clinically-backed online Menstrual Cycle Support course can be referred by all healthcare professionals, as well as a trusted signposting service for employers and colleagues at work.
The course applies the 'Red School Approach' to menstrual cycle awareness.
MENSTRUAL ACTIVIST &EDUCATOR
BREAKING BARRIERS
Kate is what leading US menstrual scholar Chris Bobel would call a 'menstrual activist': both her public and private life revolve around breaking down barriers to universal menstrual education.
She has spent nearly a decade researching the menstrual cycle from a sociological and historical perspective (whilst raising three children) and has worked with countless individuals suffering with their menstrual cycles - sharing simple menstrual education.
Kate is a regular media commentator on the menstrual cycle and global menstrual movement (which she calls 'menstrualism'), she has written and contributed to Financial Times, Huffington Post, BBC among others.
TED.com: Period Problems - why there's hope
MENSTRUALIST
"I am an advocate for menstrual health, a menstrual educator, a menstrual activist, a menstrual mentor, a menstrual artist, a menstrual environmentalist, a daily menstrual cycle awareness practitioner and I apply the menstrual cycle for my personal spiritual practice.
I believe in the power of the menstrual cycle for systemic change at home, at work and in education.
"I am a Menstrualist."
I AM A MENSTRUALIST
Kate Shepherd Cohen calls the global menstrual movement 'menstrualism' and herself a 'menstrualist'.
"It was in the year 2000 that dear friend and now-documentary-film-maker Alexis Burke and I first joked about starting a movement 'menstrualism', inspired by a lack of female-led movements we were studying in modernist art and avant-garde cultural history. The idea was a satire, laughed at by our friends for its tease of the taboo, little did we know that there was a real menstrual movement underway, a movement that had been growing in strength over at least thirty years by that point (though has rapidly spread in the last ten)."
There are many pioneers in the menstrual movement: in sport, science, art, technology and beyond but a menstrualist can be anyone who prioritises the menstrual cycle (and finds it changes their world).
DEFINING MENSTRUALISM
1. The trans-disciplinary global menstrual & menopause movement; an evolution of feminism.
2. A movement to prioritise the menstrual cycle (and peri/menopause), to establish the challenges and opportunities it presents, in private individual lives and collectively, for the wellbeing of society.
3. The converging and evolving global movements of menstruality; menstrual activism; menstrual equity; menstrual justice & advocacy; menstrual health & hygiene; menstrual literacy/education; critical menstruation studies; menstrual tech; menopause; menstrual art & menstrala, period poverty; period dignity; period power; menstrual capitalism & consumerism; and 'environmenstrualism'.
4. Menstrualism is inclusive of all sexual-orientations, ethnicities, faiths and genders/non-binary. You do not have to have a menstrual cycle to prioritise the menstrual cycle.
Professional Bio
Prior to working in the field of menstrual health as Founder and CEO of Menstrual Cycle Support, Kate Shepherd Cohen - in her 20s and early 30s - worked on responsible tourism conservation projects all over the world, many led by or serving the local indigenous populations. Women-led initiatives were key in nearly all of the projects she was privileged to visit and she participated in ceremonies, workshops and simple day to day life as a guest of many different cultures inhabiting many different landscapes. As a Protected Landscape Specialist, Kate learned a joined-up thinking, whole-system approach to sustainability, with women and education at its heart. She is Editor of Green Europe, published when she was 29 yrs old (Alastair Sawday / Penguin, 2009).
As a committed environmentalist, Kate also worked as a climate change campaigner (head of a national campaign) and on several interfaith and intercultural sustainability comms campaigns. With a degree in Italian from the University of Bristol, Kate speaks Italian fluently, working for the British Council in rural Southern Italy and studying Philosophy, Ethics and Semiotics, in the department of the author Umberto Eco, at the University of Bologna. Italian activism and Italian feminist writers continue to influence her worldview today.
A patient-centred perspective of PMDD (pre menstrual dysphoric disorder) led Kate in nearly a decade of research into the menstrual movement from a sociological and historical perspective and she has been leading educational workshops on the menstrual cycle and a menstrual media commentator since 2018. She uses her joined-up systems-thinking cross-cultural and trans-disciplinary approach to integrate clinically-backed menstrual health literacy into healthcare, education and the workplace, with a focus on the UK. Her strength is in understanding this complex issue from many perspectives and bringing together representatives from across society to raise awareness of the menstrual cycle and improve menstrual health and wellbeing for all.
RESPECTING LINEAGE
"I work with my own menstrual cycle, drawing on indigenous practices (for example expanded consciousness at menstruation), to build a capacity of forgiveness for our patriarchal systems that have decimated indigenous cultures, birthed white and male privilege, suppressed the menstrual cycle and persecuted female power. "
IN GRATITUDE
In gratitude to Kate's teachers, who continue to guide her: Alexandra Pope & Sjanie Hugo Wurlitzer of Red School,
pioneers of 'Menstrual Cycle Awareness'; Dr Lara Owen, world leading menstrual scholar, author and researcher; Jane Hardwick Collins, leading teacher of the spiritual dimensions of menstruation; Vanessa Tiegs, menstrual blood artist. Also, in gratitude to Cornish menstrual wisdom teacher Mandy Adams (RIP 1970-2021).
Kate hopes to continue the lineages of her teachers with the same spirit, compassion and kindness that she has received and which has revolutionised her own experience of the menstrual cycle.
Kate recognises the influence of indigenous cultures on her teachings and expresses deep respect and gratitude to all ethnicities, cultures & traditions for inspiration in this work. She is a firm believer in open-hearted dialogue, friendship and connectivity with all cultures, faiths and beliefs.
Thanks also to all menstrualists who have paved the way for this work and to all those who have been generous in sharing their menstrual stories in my workshops and 1:1s.
"As the taboo around the menstrual cycle breaks, I am filled with hope for a more equitable world, with the menstrual cycle a power tool for influencing systemic change."
Belonging - recognising roots
I am Kate Shepherd Cohen and I am of the Celtic Nations. I currently live in Cornwall (Kernow), UK, was born and raised in SE Wales (Cymru), with "silurian" grandfathers; and, grandmothers from Ireland (Eire) and from Clan Keith, Scotland (Alba).
I acknowledge Brythonic Celtic (and pre-Celtic) wisdom that deeply reveres the natural cycles and interconnectedness of all life and how this folk wisdom, especially the Celtic Wheel of the Year, has influenced my teachings on the menstrual cycle. I celebrate and acknowledge how the wheel overlaps with other beliefs, cycles and systems. I also celebrate the UK as a multi cultural island and am grateful for the diversity of influences.
This is my Cornwall
To honour the Cornish national minority population and ancestral stories of my Cornwall home, I am currently learning Cornish (kernowek), am a member of the Cornish Language Fellowship and the Endangered Languages Project. I am fortunate to name Mark Trevethan, Cornwall Council's cultural strategy lead and fluent Cornish speaker, as my teacher. I am a lover of the sea and an active member of St Agnes Surf Life Club as a qualified surf lifeguard and am on the local surf boat (rowing) crew.
What's in a name?
I would like to express my gratitude to the ancestors of my husband, Simon, for my married name (Cohen) and the lineage of Kohanim ("priests"), descendants of the tribe of Levi. Also to my paternal grandfather's name (Shepherd), traced (so far) 400 years to SE Wales, 20 miles from where I grew up. I was thrilled to learn of the synchronicity of my first name - my Scottish ancestors are from the ancient Pictish lands, Caithness, believed etymologically to be from 'Kate-ness'.
Rainy day Cornish cliff archaeological dig of 10th C chapel & holy well
Celebrating our local story at the Celtic festival of Beltane (May 1) - the Cornish giant Bolster
Mum of three daughters. My work aims to serve future generations.
COURAGEOUS GRATITUDE
For Surviving and for my years of PMDD (and PTSD) that followed
For the experience of intense period (and ovulation) pain
For having experienced pre-menstrual psychosis
For the 'black hole' of Post Natal Depression I fell into after the birth of my second daughter
For my cycling years and perimenopause on the horizon
For the burning injustice I feel for having been denied my birth right for most of my cycling years - and the incentive to change the status quo.