Why Menstrual Health Is a Crisis of Our Time - and Why We Keep Overlooking It as a Solution
A call to action for decision makers, and a love letter of validation for people
who have a menstrual cycle.
Introduction
We are all here because somebody had a menstrual cycle.
So why do we know so little about it? That should be enough to make us pause.
What’s the problem?
Menstrual health has been overlooked and treated as a side issue for hundreds of years, especially in western society. This is having a significant impact on people’s health – and not just those with “women’s issues”.
The menstrual cycle, and menstrual health more broadly is often treated as something very private, a bit embarrassing and certainly an aspect of health and wellbeing to be managed quietly.
Girls in schools are hiding pads and tampons on the way to the toilets, women are running organisations and households powered by paracetamol and hot water bottles. When “sick days” are taken to accommodate this, they are often done so in shame, silence and a vague sense of – hey, if you’re struggling, you are probably just not coping with life very well.
Every day - care providers, educators, budget holders and decision makers ignore vital whole-body health indicators when making significant decisions and the majority of us haven’t accepted that this is not just about periods.
Why does this matter?
The menstrual cycle is not just about fertility, hygiene and reproduction. It is whole-body health. Of the limited research that exists, it all indicates that the menstrual cycle is significantly tied to our mental health, the nervous system, chronic pain, public health, workplace wellbeing, education, equality, research, body literacy, economics and systems change all at once.
It is one of the clearest examples of how badly our systems have separated the body from the mind, the individual from the environment, and symptoms from the wider context they are happening in.
The more I do this work, the more obvious it becomes – we are not well.
In the UK alone – mental health is in crisis, chronic illness is rising and workplaces are stretched. Schools are under pressure to put everything on the curriculum, NHS waiting lists are increasingly long and we have a growing population that is burned out, anxious, exhausted, inflamed, traumatised and under-supported.
My argument is that – quietly sitting in the middle of this is menstrual health.
Not as the only answer there is, or as a magic cure, but as an essential and overlooked missing part of the map.
This is not only backed up by the science and research we have thus far, but when you take a step back – it is common sense. The menstrual cycle is one of the most common embodied health experiences a human can have. It’s a recurring biological rhythm connected to the brain, hormones, immune function, pain, energy, sleep, metabolism, inflammation, fertility, identity, trauma, work and participation.
Yet we are taught almost nothing meaningful about it, so it’s unsurprising we are not well, and less surprising that we haven’t connected the dots.
It’s not just a strange occurrence – it’s a systems failure and we have a responsibility to address it.
Let’s look at the map we’re missing.
Menstrual health is bigger than periods
In 2024, The World Health Organisation has called for menstrual health to be recognised, framed and addressed as a health and human rights issue, not merely a hygiene issue. It specifically points to the physical, psychological and social dimensions of menstrual health across the life course.
That matters because menstrual health is not simply whether someone bleeds once a month. The latest research suggests that the menstrual cycle should be treated as a vital health sign across the lifespan due to characteristics that can guide clinical care and predict wider health risks.
Menstrual health includes:
pain
bleeding
PMS and PMDD
endometriosis
adenomyosis
PCOS, now renamed PMOS
fibroids
irregular or absent cycles
heavy bleeding
perimenopause and menopause
mood changes
migraines
fatigue
sleep disruption
fertility
trauma
shame
gender dysphoria
access to products
access to healthcare
the ability to participate fully in school, work, care, relationships and community
The connection to mental health
One intersection between menstrual health and broader health that is showcasing its impact loud and clear is mental health.
We currently have a mental health crisis in the UK, as the proportion of adults identifying with a common mental health condition is rising quickly. Within these data points, the proportion is higher across the board in women than men.
The Centre for Mental Health estimates that mental ill health costs England £300 billion a year, describing the scale as economically comparable to having a pandemic every year.
So yes, mental health is a crisis.
Some of the latest NHS psychiatric data indicates that PTSD screening has risen notably since 2014 – making trauma a relevant part of any health conversation.
Because the menstrual cycle starts with the HPA Axis which governs cortisol rhythms and stress activity it’s not just ovulation that is affected. This affects stress sensitivity, emotional regulation, threat response and capacity, which means that the menstrual cycle and our nervous system are continuously dancing with one another.
For people with histories of trauma, the body-based nature of menstruation interacts with shame, dissociation, medical distrust, pain, loss of control and dysphoria. This subsequently has a significant impact on mental health, which we will get to.
But, in the meantime – if somebody has menstrual anxieties, shutdown, rage, trauma flares or sensory overwhelm, it may not be random – the menstrual cycle may reveal the map to investigate further.
For more information on the specific links between menstrual and mental health, you can read about that here.
The menstrual cycle also has interactions with gut health, IBS, digestion, epilepsy, catamenial seizures, chronic pain, immune health, neurodivergence, muscles, joints, connective tissue, skin, hair, our glands and much more.
Menstrual health is not one small category of health.
It is a lens through which we can understand a huge amount of information that could change everything for people’s health and subsequently – ability to sustainably participate.
The scale of impact is huge
The numbers are hard to ignore.
If we speak about women’s health, we should take into consideration that life expectancy for women in the UK is falling, whilst Gynaecology currently has the longest NHS waiting list of any specialism with more than 500,000 people waiting for an appointment.
A recent report in April 2026 called it a “watershed moment”. When you couple this with the fact that roughly 13.3 million people in the UK have a menstrual cycle, and period poverty is on the rise (21% of people) – it feels fair to say we have a problem.
Menstrual health also has a large intersection with global inequality, and poverty.
Globally, menstrual health and more specifically – period poverty is a significant issue that spans public health, education, gender equality and sanitation. Around 500 million women and girls globally lack access to menstrual products and adequate facilities But it’s not an issue far from home – in 2025, Action Aid reported that just in the UK, 2.8 million people who menstruate were struggling to afford period products.
In terms of menstrual health conditions, the data that does exist paints a worrying picture.
Endometriosis affects around 1 in 10 women in the UK, and the average diagnosis time has now reached 9 years and 4 months.
PMOS, previously known as PCOS, affects around 1 in 8 women globally. In May 2026, a global consensus renamed PCOS as Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome to better reflect that it is a complex endocrine and metabolic condition, not simply an issue of ovarian cysts.
PMDD is not “bad PMS”. UK parliamentary evidence states that an estimated 1.2 million people in the UK have PMDD, and of these, 72% experience suicidal ideation, more than 50% self-harm, and around one-third attempt suicide.
Perimenopause and menopause affect millions of people, often during peak working, caring and leadership years.
And yet, many people are still told their pain is normal, their symptoms are vague, their mood is just hormones, their exhaustion is just life, and their body is something to push through.
We have normalised too much, and the data backs that up.
The education gap starts early
One of the reasons menstrual health has become such a crisis is because we have failed people early.
We have a huge public knowledge gap around menstrual health, which isn’t a moral judgement on any individual, and the pressure shouldn’t be on schools and teachers already under strain – it’s an observation of a system failing.
We all started our life in a womb, but a significant proportion of people cannot confidently identify the womb, understand what comes from where, or recognise when menstrual symptoms require medical care.
In 2025, Plan International UK found that one in five girls said they were taught in school that extreme period pain is normal. A third said their lessons only covered the biology of periods, without guidance on how to manage them. In the same year, a systematic review in Sage Journals highlighted how this extends into adulthood, with 31.5% people not being able to identify a uterus and 44% cannot identify the source of menstrual blood.
At the exact age when people need body literacy, language and confidence, they are often given a rushed lesson, a pad, a diagram and silence.
People with menstrual cycles deserve to understand what is going on in their bodies, they should know when to seek help and when they do seek help – we need systems of care that can handle it. We wonder why people arrive in adulthood disconnected from their bodies, unable to advocate for themselves, and waiting years for diagnosis – this is why.
And it’s not something most people agree with. Wellbeing of Women noted that 83% of women and girls agree there needs to be better education on periods in school, college and universities. In addition, 74% agree that healthcare professionals need more education on period-related symptoms and gynaecological conditions.
Which brings me to where this all sits within the healthcare system we entrust with our safety, dignity and ability to live well.
Healthcare is still catching up
People with menstrual symptoms do not only present to gynaecology.
They show up in GP appointments, emergency care, pharmacies, schools, therapy rooms, workplaces, sexual health services, physiotherapy clinics, domestic abuse services, community groups, coaching spaces and mental health support.
But many of those systems are not built with menstrual health in mind.
The Women and Equalities Committee has described reproductive health conditions as highly prevalent, often normalised, dismissed and left untreated for years.
Yet, respectfully - our healthcare providers have limited training in these areas.
Within the UK, menstrual and gynaecological health does sit within GP training expectations, but there is currently not a nationally mandated or standardised menstrual health curriculum.
Medical students learn broadly about women’s health, but there are no national minimum number of hours on this topic
The RCGP Curriculum does offer a gynaecology and breast health topic guide that is regularly updated, but it is simply a guide to read and states itself it is “not a comprehensive review”
The Royal College of Nursing recognises the need and have directly highlighted that menstrual education is not compulsory and there are significant gaps in training.
Midwives have NMC standards around reproductive health, but it is still largely framed around pregnancy and maternity – not a lifelong health indicator.
The GPhC standards for pharmacists does not mention “menstrual”, “menopause” or “endometriosis”
So – menstrual health is not a nationally protected aspect of education with minimum standards in medical education.
That is worrying.
We cannot keep telling individuals to advocate for themselves in systems that were never taught to understand their bodies.
Research and policy have a lot to answer for
As we can see – menstrual health is significant, creating an impact our system is struggling to handle, yet the demand for education and care is increasing.
But one of the most frustrating parts of menstrual health is how much has been hidden in plain sight.
In the UK, five times more research has been conducted into erectile dysfunction than premenstrual syndrome. 19% of men are affected by erectile dysfunction while 90% of women have PMS. Only about 2% of overall UK public research funding goes to reproductive health and childbirth – yet is the reason we all here to have this conversation and conduct research and develop policies on, well… anything. MS, menopause, maternal haemorrhage, maternal hypertensive disorders, cervical cancer and endometriosis together made up 14% of the women’s health gap in DALYs, but received less than 1% of cumulative research funding.
For generations, ancient traditions, body-based practices and menstrual wisdom have recognised cyclical patterns, rest, intuition, seasonality and the relationship between the body and the environment. Of course, not all ancient knowledge should be romanticised or accepted uncritically. But it is telling that many cultures had ways of recognising menstrual cyclicity while modern systems often reduced it to embarrassment, pathology or inconvenience.
And now science is catching up to the idea that menstrual health is not trivial.
Researchers are increasingly arguing that the menstrual cycle should be treated as a vital sign. Menstrual blood-derived stem cells are also being studied in regenerative medicine because they can be collected non-invasively and have shown promising biological properties in research settings.
The same blood many people are taught to hide, shame, sanitise and never mention is also being researched for its therapeutic potential.
That should tell us something about how distorted our cultural relationship with menstruation has become, and be the warning sign we need (among many) – to pay attention and do something about it.
Workplaces cannot ignore this anymore
Work is one of the main places where this issue is playing out in real time.
Work is one of the places where menstrual health either becomes visible, supported and manageable, or hidden, misunderstood and pushed underground. When we take into account the scale and impact of the issue, with a lack of knowledge and appropriate care pathways – you can see why.
The CIPD found that 69% of employees who experienced menstruation symptoms said those symptoms had a negative impact at work. This rose to 81% among those with a diagnosed menstrual condition. Only 12% said their organisation provided support for menstruation and menstrual health.
That is not a small workplace wellbeing issue, it is a huge gap in the system.
Of all the things menstrual health intersects with, many of them are related to workplace participation. It affects concentration, confidence, fatigue, emotional regulation, absence, presenteeism, performance, progression and retention. In addition, because menstrual health intersects with disability, neurodiversity, chronic illness, mental health, race, gender identity and poverty, it also belongs firmly in EDI.
The UK now has BSI Guidelines, which offers a workplace standard offering guidance on menstruation, menstrual health and menopause in the workplace. This is a step in the right direction, and organisations should take note.
Some employers are already beginning to act. Early adopters of menstrual health as a priority include Channel 4, who published a period policy in 2023. King’s College London has introduced a menstruation policy and NHS organisations are beginning to roll out menstrual health support for staff. (NUH)
This is the direction of travel so the question for organisations is no longer – “is this appropriate to discuss at work?”, it is – “how are we going to support people?”.
Some places are moving faster
This is not just happening in individual workplaces, it’s happening globally, but England is lagging behind.
Zambia is often cited as one of the most significant global examples of menstrual leave as since 2015, they have given people who menstruate the right to take one day off each month for menstrual pain.
Scotland became the first country to make free period products legally available to anyone who needs them, framing access as fundamental to equality, dignity and rights. Catalonia has gone further on product access by providing free reusable menstrual products through pharmacies to around 2.5 million women, girls, trans and non-binary people who menstruate.
Spain introduced paid menstrual leave for debilitating period pain, although early reporting suggests uptake has been limited, partly because of medical certification requirements and ongoing stigma and France as promising example of national endometriosis action plans being implemented, and Australia launched a National Action Plan for Endometriosis in 2018, focused on awareness, clinical management, care and research.
These examples are not perfect, because no policy is. But they do demonstrate that menstrual health is becoming a recognised part of public health, workplace rights, education and equality.
The UK is moving, but not fast enough.
What needs to change?
Menstrual health connects so many aspects of people’s quality of life and is the intersection at which inequalities become very visible.
We need significant improvements in education, funding, training, workplace policies, access, public language and inclusion to address this.
We can’t comprehensively resolve the mental health crisis without considering cyclical mood, PMDD, trauma, sleep, stress, hormones and nervous system load. For chronic illness, we need to address endometriosis, PMOS, autoimmune flares, migraine, IBS, pelvic pain, fatigue and inflammation.
There’s an agreed requirement to teach people about their bodies in education settings, before they spend their lives thinking pain is normal, and we need to back this up with services that support them. We then need workplaces, where these people participate as adults – to understand people’s energy, capacity and productivity.
The significant gender health gap in research, funding, diagnosis, treatment and medical education should be addressed as a priority, especially with emerging conversations around medical misogyny in the UK.
When identity politics is taking centre stage and inequalities are rising, we can look to menstrual health as a lens by which to examine poverty race, disability, class, neurodiversity, gender identity and trauma and talk about product and service accessibility and dignity.
We can ask people to track their cycles, manage their symptoms and better understand their own bodies, which is very important.
However, we cannot solve a systems problem through self-awareness.
Conclusion
For too long, menstrual health has been made small.
Hidden in school toilets, whispered about at work, dismissed in GP appointments, left out of policies, underfunded in research and when addressed – it is framed as either fertility, hygiene or inconvenience.
But menstrual health is one of the most significant health, equality and systems issues we have.
It tells us about the body, pain, stress and mental health. It indicates to us how people are treated when education is not sufficient, and providers cannot keep up. It highlights how culturally we treat people whose symptoms appear messy, cyclical, gendered, invisible or seemingly hard to measure.
Fundamentally, it tells us that something is not working and offers us an indication to what might.
When we have created a society that separates the body from the mind and encourages people to push through symptoms they weren’t taught to understand – what did we expect? When we do not build essential body literacy into our education systems, including those responsible for providing care – how are we meant to feel? When we ask adults to be present in workplaces, and deliver a continued, sustained output in order to earn money to survive, with limited support available – how do we achieve this? When we’ve built systems of care that doesn’t build this knowledge into their baseline, and dismissal is prevalent – why are we surprised at the results?
And, when decision makers won’t fund further research or solutions – what are we meant to do?
Menstrual health invites us to do something different. It invites us to listen earlier, educate better and connect the dots.
If we are serious about wellbeing, equality, mental health, chronic illness, public health and systems change, then menstrual health cannot stay at the margins when it evidently belongs in the conversation.
It belongs at the centre of the conversation.
The conversation any of us can even have, because at some point, somebody had a menstrual cycle.
Let’s give it the air time it deserves.
