The Menstruality Podcast

In this electrifying conversation, visionary activist and author Lynne Twist tells a new story about the potency and power we can hold in post-menopause life.  Lynne shares the story of how, when she was 50, she received a series of visions which profoundly altered the direction of her career - ultimately inspiring her transition from her life work of ending world hunger, to a new calling to stewa...

Have you ever “lost it” in the days running up to your bleed? Of course you have! We all have. Today we break down Sophie’s latest premenstrual losing it episode to find the gold inside it - the power that the premenstruum is awakening within us. We explore: What’s going on in the irritability of the premenstruum? Why do we often feel so much more permeable at this time? The sacred role of premens...

Asha Frost is an indigenous healer and author. She is an Anishinaabe, Ojibwe woman who was raised in a menstrually positive culture and in today’s episode we explore how her menstrual cycle inspires her work, her new book, ‘ You are The Medicine: 13 Moons of Indigenous Wisdom, Ancestral Connection, and Animal Spirit Guidance ’, and the connection she sees between cycle wisdom and the unique medici...

Clare Dubois has given her life to reforesting the topics  as the founder of the not-for-profit, TreeSisters, but her menopause experience is demanding that she take a profound pause. In this conversation Clare breaks down her real-time death and rebirth initiatory process of menopause, from the place she is currently in - the deeply uncomfortable, uncompromisingly thorough, ‘ego-death’ part of th...

Our menstrual cycles can be a profound ally in work and leadership. Today we do a deep dive on how to channel our cyclical wisdom as it shifts and changes throughout the cycle month, with someone who has an extraordinary amount of personal and professional experience in this realm.  Dr Joanna Martin is a renowned visionary, coach and catalyst. As the founder of One of many, her organisation has su...

Today’s episode is about what it’s like when our experience is actually supported, honoured and dignified through menopause , and it’s also about relationship, and how to take care of ourselves through - and make sense of - times of great transformation. Alexandra is your host today, because this is a continuation of our Wise Power Retreat series , which was an incredible journey, over 3500 of us...

Dr Sonia Wright - aka The Midlife Sex Coach for Women - combines her natural ability to talk about uncomfortable topics with her medical knowledge, sexual counseling skills and life coaching tools to create a unique brand of sex coaching. In this conversation about sex in midlife and during menopause, we discuss sensitive issues with humour and heart. We explore: The sex challenges that can arise...

The premenstrual phase of the menstrual cycle - or ‘inner autumn’ as we lovingly call it - is often the most uncomfortable phase emotionally, and it is definitely the most misunderstood. The symptoms that show up for many in this phase and the critical, disruptive fire that burns through us premenstrually are demonised in our world and inside ourselves.  In this conversation we want to deshame and...

Once you’re in menopause, you appear to be off all the usual maps. You're cast off from a familiar shoreline onto a dark ocean of unknownness, with only the stars and the moon – your instincts, feelings and intuitions – to guide you. However, there is a map of sorts for the menopausal journey, a timeless archetypal pattern for transitioning this world between worlds, and it has an implicit or...

Today we’re talking about a much misunderstood part of the body… the cervix.  Olivia Bryant is the founder of Self:Cervix, an organisation dedicated to revolutionising the way the cervix is viewed by the medical profession, by science and sex educators. She says: “As a sexologist and sex nerd, I know the cervix to be a powerful place of pleasure… For us, cervical orgasm is a thing worth exploring,...

Today’s conversation follows a powerful idea that woke Alexandra up in the early hours a few days ago. It’s the idea that drives our new menopause book, Wise Power, and it’s an idea that’s almost totally missing in the global menopause conversation... ... We need to dignify menopause as a process of spiritual awakening.  And it’s a very special episode, because it also marks the official release o...

The menstruality journey begins at menarche with our first bleed, and ends as we go through the great initiation of menopause. For some, pregnancy, birth, and motherhood are a key part of their menstruating years, but for some people, parenting doesn’t happen, despite a deep desire to have children. It's World Childless Week this week, and we've invited the brilliant Jody Day to share ab...

When teacher and activist Jewels Wingfield felt menopause calling, through intense physical symptoms, she knew she needed to take a deep retreat. In this conversation, we explore her 13 moon ‘conscious menopause sabbatical’ and how it transformed her health, her relationship to herself, her work in the world, and even her sex life. Jewels is the founder of the EarthHeart project and on the other s...

There are a handful of trailblazers who have paved the way for the positive menstrual culture we’re beginning to see today, and Dr Lara Owen is one of them. She was researching and writing her book about the power of the menstrual cycle, Her Blood is Gold in the 1990’s, and it has been a game changer for thousands of women and menstruators.  She’s now an expert on the culture, politics and organiz...

When you explore old European myths, it’s the elder women and grandmothers who run the world. In Greek mythology, there are the Fates - three elder women who make the world go round. In Eastern European mythology, the crone Baba Yaga initiates young people and facilitates transformation. In ancient Gallic mythology it is the Cailleach who created and shaped the land, from the beginning of time. In...

We want to create a world where everyone is in love with the menstrual cycle - not a perfect version of the cycle - but exactly the cycle you have.  Because this love affair revolutionises our lives (and the world!). That’s why we’ve created our new FREE online course: Love Your Cycle: Discover the Power of Menstrual Cycle Awareness to Revolutionise Your Life where we explore the four phases or in...

What is the connection between trauma, the nervous system and menstrual health?  This week we’re speaking with Lisa De Jong, who shares in depth about her personal experience with a decade of chronic pain, an eventual endometriosis diagnosis, and her experience of trauma healing and nervous system regulation.  Lisa is a graduate of our Menstruality Leadership Programme and has infused the teaching...

In our 40s, many women and people with periods begin to experience a variety of health symptoms and challenges, as well as emotional and psychological shifts. Some call this perimenopause. At Red School we like to call it, the Quickening.  In this episode - which is the fourth in our menopause summer series - we look at how the Quickening is slowly awakening new levels of power within us , and how...

Across the ages women and birthing people have been invited by midwives and doulas to relax their jaw and throat to support the opening of the cervix in labour. In today’s conversation we explore why this is so important, we explore the connection between our throats, our voices, and the emotional and physical health of our wombs.  I’m talking with Shakirah Sabira who is a doula, African womb heal...

In today’s conversation, we get practical, down-to-earth and real about the initiation of menopause and how on earth do we actually get through to the other side. Though,  as we explore, it’s much less about doing and much more about being. And we have five alchemical powers that can help us along the way.  This is the in third our Wise Power series where Alexandra and Sjanie have been waxing lyri...

Do you suffer from menstrual pain , or other cycle challenges such as PMS, PMDD or managing irregular cycles ? In this episode we explore how the practice of menstrual cycle awareness creates a ground for healing, helps us to take stand for what we need, and supports us to create a new relationship with the challenges we face, and to trust that something meaningful is at work. Alexandra shares her...

When you find yourself in the thick of the menopause transition, there’s no maintaining life as normal. How can we support ourselves to manage the day to day realities of life amidst the huge initiation of menopause? In this episode we explore the six steps of our ‘menopause triage’ and how they help you to dignify and honour what you’re experiencing. We explore: The power of accepting the fact th...

One of the big initiatory moments along the menstruality journey from menarche (our first period) to menopause is pregnancy and childbirth, if that is our path in life. In a world which has a lot to learn about how to support mothers and birthing people through this profound initiation, we need all the help we can get to prepare for and create a positive birth, or heal from a challenging or trauma...

It’s time to re-write the story of menopause. What if the critical, provocative energy of menopause is actually a sign that you’re coming to your senses? What if menopause isn’t a health condition we suffer from, but that people in menopause you’re actually suffering from is a lack of recognition, respect and support for the profound initiation you’re going through. What if, post-menopause, you ar...

One of the beautifully challenging things about cultivating an intimacy with our menstrual cycles, or menopause process, is that it opens us up to the world. To the beauty of life, and to the pain. This quality of tender, unarmoured presence is real medicine for a world that can feel full of conflict, pretense, injustice and a lack of capacity to be with difference. A devoted practice of cycle awa...