When I first heard about Ireland\u2019s growing band of self-styled menstrual mentors \u2013 women who run retreats, charge handsomely for the privilege and invite other women to spend weekends communing spiritually with their uteruses \u2013 my first instinct was not curiosity, it was to reach for something cold and wonder what had become of us.<\/p>\n
A weekend retreat, focused entirely on your menstrual cycle, the thing that has been arriving every twenty-odd days since you were about 12.\u00a0<\/p>\n
My grandmother raised eight children and never once visualised herself walking into a deep red cave to commune with her womb. She was far too busy.<\/p>\n
Very LA, I thought, very woo-woo and very much the preserve of women with disposable income.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019d much sooner spend the money on a spa break with champagne cocktails. Then I started looking into it and, rather against my will, I started to understand.<\/p>\n
Ireland has always had two competing female archetypes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The first is the saints-and-virgins ideal \u2013 serene, composed, her grotto on every country road from Donegal to Cork.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The second is the Sheela-na-Gig, the medieval stone figure carved on to church doorways across this country \u2013 squatting, unashamed.<\/p>\n
For centuries we celebrated the first and quietly buried the second. We built a culture where what women\u2019s bodies do every month is managed in silence and endured with dignity.<\/p>\n
Perhaps that is where the trouble started. Because silence does not just shape culture, it shapes healthcare.<\/p>\n
The average time from first symptoms to a confirmed endometriosis diagnosis \u2013 a condition affecting one in ten women, causing pain so severe it can derail entire lives \u2013 is nine years in Ireland.<\/p>\n
At the end of 2025, over 1,000 women were waiting for endometriosis care across just five hospitals.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Broader gynaecology outpatient lists run to over 30,000, with thousands waiting beyond six months.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Women walk into GP surgeries having endured a decade of pain and walk out with a prescription for Ponstan and a suggestion to keep a diary.<\/p>\n
Endometriosis is the sharpest example of a much wider failure \u2013 a healthcare system that has historically struggled to take women\u2019s pain seriously.<\/p>\n
Into this vacuum of dismissal, delay and inadequate answers, a new kind of practitioner has emerged \u2013 women who were themselves failed by medicine, who found their own way to understanding and built something from that experience for the women coming behind them.<\/p>\n
The menstrual mentor did not emerge from a wellness trend. She emerged from a waiting list.<\/p>\n
Kitty Maguire is not what I expected. Based in Dublin, where she lives with her two boys aged six and 12, she describes herself as a womb therapist and has been doing this work for well over a decade.<\/p>\n
Her Red Alchemy practice offers one-to-one sessions and immersive retreats \u2013 candles, crystals and what she calls magickal yoga.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She also plays the cello during her nervous-system yoga classes, meditative sessions open to men and women alike.<\/p>\n
Her story begins with a traumatic copper coil insertion in her 20s, performed by a doctor who, she says, \u2018just kept telling me to calm down and stop crying\u2019.<\/p>\n
She sought help afterwards from her Dublin GP.<\/p>\n
\u2018The best solution I can offer you is to have a baby, it might ease things,\u2019 she was told. She was 22.<\/p>\n
\u2018I got to the point where I stopped asking,\u2019 she says. \u2018I just thought, this is what you have to live with.\u2019<\/p>\n
![\"Kitty](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.com\/1s\/2026\/05\/07\/17\/108447029-15799021-image-a-22_1778172962655.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\nKitty Maguire describes herself as a womb therapist and has been doing this work for a decade<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
She turned instead to somatic experiencing, trauma practice and cyclical intelligence \u2013 the idea that the body holds memory and that disruption in the cycle can often be traced to events never properly processed.<\/p>\n
\u2018The church and state colonised our womb,\u2019 she says. \u2018How we cross that threshold \u2013 our first bleed \u2013 will dramatically shape how we see ourselves as women in the world. If it\u2019s something dirty or hidden, that stays in the body.\u2019<\/p>\n
She is clear, unprompted, that she does not replace medicine.<\/p>\n
\u2018I\u2019m not there to fix anything,\u2019 she says. \u2018I\u2019m there like a midwife, to bear witness and help them along the journey.\u2019<\/p>\n
She holds herself to a rule I find unexpectedly moving.<\/p>\n
\u2018I won\u2019t teach from the womb until it\u2019s healed in me,\u2019 she says. \u2018I have to wait until it lands.\u2019<\/p>\n
On sceptics, she is entirely unbothered.<\/p>\n
\u2018Those who don\u2019t believe in magic will never find it,\u2019 she says. \u2018I\u2019m not here to convert anyone \u2013 I\u2019m booked out until August.\u2019<\/p>\n
Then, almost as an afterthought, \u2018When I tell people I\u2019m a womb therapist, they either lean in or lean out.\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘In my experience, it\u2019s the men who lean in first. They\u2019ve watched someone they love suffer for years. They get it.\u2019<\/p>\n
She watched the Netflix documentary Louis Theroux: Inside The Manosphere recently with her 12-year-old son.<\/p>\n
When one of the men declared that nothing in the world had been created by a woman, her son turned to her and said: \u2018The womb brought them here.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018I was so proud in that moment,\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n
For Lisa de Jong, that kind of understanding came decades too late. From around the age of 15, Lisa was in serious pain \u2013 confused, embarrassed and missing school.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Diagnosed with endometriosis in her mid-20s, the surgery she received in Ireland \u2013 ablation, during which tissue is burned rather than excised from the root \u2013 did not resolve her symptoms and the pain remained.<\/p>\n
She is now founder of the Menstrual Coach Academy, which trains practitioners in cycle-based approaches to women\u2019s health.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The six-month professional certification costs \u20ac3,500, with payment plans available. It\u2019s a figure that gives pause, until you understand the market.<\/p>\n
Her trainees are mostly working professionals \u2013 psychotherapists, yoga teachers, physiotherapists and, this year, she tells me with some amusement, a garda.<\/p>\n
\u2018The medical system was just sort of behind,\u2019 she says. \u2018It tends to be behind when it comes to women\u2019s bodies.\u2019<\/p>\n
She is candid about the more colourful end of her industry.<\/p>\n
\u2018There are people doing this who are very much, start chanting, imagine yourself in a red cave,\u2019 she says. \u2018That\u2019s not really my personality.\u2019<\/p>\n
What cycle awareness gave her was a reframing that medicine never offered.<\/p>\n
\u2018My brain was conditioned to dread my period every month,\u2019 she says. \u2018My whole life was organised around managing pain \u2013 could I go to that concert?\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘Could I get on that plane? The hypervigilance took over everything, it became an obsession.<\/p>\n
\u2018I describe what I do the way mindfulness relates to mental health \u2013 an additional tool, not a replacement.<\/p>\n
![\"Lisa](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.com\/1s\/2026\/05\/07\/17\/108446973-15799021-image-a-21_1778172881540.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\nLisa de Jong is the founder of the Menstrual Coach Academy, which trains practitioners in cycle-based approaches to women\u2019s health<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u2018If women are taught that periods are painful before they even arrive, that conditions the brain. Hypervigilance creates a biochemical environment for pain.\u2019<\/p>\n
Paula Byrne\u2019s answer to that is simpler: catch them before it starts. She came to this work from a classroom rather than a treatment table.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A registered member of the Teaching Council with 19 years in education, from Co. Laois, she believes menstrual literacy should be standard in how we educate girls.<\/p>\n
Her own story follows the same pattern as Lisa\u2019s, as Kitty\u2019s, as so many Irish women\u2019s \u2013 severe pain from her first bleed, years of missed school and work. She was diagnosed with endometriosis in her mid-20s.<\/p>\n
\u2018I was heavily medicated, I took paracetamol like Smarties,\u2019 she says. \u2018My mother had similar pain, so she assumed it was just normal.<\/p>\n
\u2018I wish my 15-year-old self had known that eight days of severe pain every month was not normal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Paula](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.com\/1s\/2026\/05\/07\/17\/108447005-15799021-image-a-23_1778173152049.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\nPaula Byrne is a registered member of the Teaching Council with 19 years in education\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
‘If paracetamol and ibuprofen aren\u2019t touching period pain, that is not acceptable. Teenagers should not be heavily medicated just to get through their periods.\u2019<\/p>\n
Her school sessions run 60 to 90 minutes and cover breaking awkwardness around terminology, moving through the four phases of the cycle, red flags and when to seek medical help.<\/p>\n
\u2018What really stands out is students saying, \u201cThank you for letting us ask questions,\u201d\u2019 she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018They don\u2019t always feel comfortable raising this with teachers. That\u2019s not the teachers\u2019 fault. It\u2019s the system.\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘The body-literacy piece is simply not there. We\u2019re taught to function on a linear, 24-hour productivity cycle, but our hormones ebb and flow.\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘Rest increases productivity. That\u2019s not respected in society.<\/p>\n
\u2018I didn\u2019t have the language to explain what was wrong with me. Now I want teenagers to know it\u2019s okay to speak up if something isn\u2019t right.\u2019<\/p>\n
For all this good advice, however, there is a line, and in the menstrual wellness world it can be worryingly hard to find.<\/p>\n
The global wellness industry is valued at approximately $6.8 trillion, and menstrual wellness is one of its fastest-growing corners \u2013 cycle apps, red tent retreats, womb massage and crimson cave visualisations, much of it aimed at women who have spent years feeling dismissed by conventional medicine.<\/p>\n
In an entirely unregulated space, the distance between a thoughtful practitioner and someone who completed a weekend course and started charging four figures is invisible to the woman sitting in the room with her eyes closed and her credit card processed.<\/p>\n
CORU, Ireland\u2019s multi-profession health regulator, confirms that menstrual coaching is not a regulated profession and the title \u2018menstrual coach\u2019 is not protected under the Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005.<\/p>\n
\u2018Using terms such as coach, advisor or educator does not, in itself, indicate that an individual is a regulated health or social care professional,\u2019 a spokesperson says.<\/p>\n
Anyone can call themselves a menstrual mentor and be open for bookings tomorrow. There\u2019s no qualification required and no oversight whatsoever.<\/p>\n
Dr Jennifer Donnelly, a postdoctoral researcher at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, sees the trend clearly.<\/p>\n
\u2018The rise of menstrual coaching reflects a broader gap in women\u2019s health, where many individuals are seeking support for complex, nuanced experiences that are not always well addressed within existing medical pathways,\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n
The appeal, she argues, is straightforward: women are turning to more personalised approaches that offer accessible, relatable validation of their lived experience.<\/p>\n
But she urges caution too.<\/p>\n
\u2018The evidence base for menstrual coaching as a structured intervention remains limited. This highlights<\/p>\n
an important research priority \u2013 strengthening the scientific understanding of everyday menstrual health and identifying which approaches are safe, effective and appropriate.\u2019<\/p>\n
Dr Aideen Brides, GP at Rossmore Clinic in Monaghan, is more direct.<\/p>\n
\u2018We are seeing a significant shift on social media towards rejecting hormonal treatments, with a great deal of information being shared that is not evidence- based,\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n
\u2018For many conditions \u2013 including endometriosis \u2013 hormonal treatments are the first-line option and are very effective, often preventing the need for surgery.<\/p>\n
\u2018Women should always seek medical help if they are experiencing painful periods.\u2019<\/p>\n
On supplements, she is unambiguous: \u2018No supplement is necessary or helpful in the treatment of endometriosis.\u2019<\/p>\n
Lisa de Jong echoes the concern from the inside. She has watched women swing from medical disappointment into extreme wellness plans, some developing what amounts to orthorexia around healthy eating.<\/p>\n
\u2018There\u2019s so much fear in their nervous system,\u2019 she says. \u2018They don\u2019t know how to integrate the work.\u2019<\/p>\n
And yet women in Ireland are still waiting nine years for an endometriosis diagnosis, still being handed Ponstan and told to keep a diary, still walking into surgeries with a decade of pain and walking out without answers.<\/p>\n
Then somewhere online, a woman says: I hear you, I had exactly the same thing, and here is a way to finally understand your own body.<\/p>\n
That is not nothing. In the vacuum the Irish healthcare system has spent decades carving out around women\u2019s health, it is, for many women, everything.<\/p>\n
Paula Byrne, Lisa de Jong and Kitty Maguire did not create the gap they work in. They are not the cause of the problem, they are the symptom of it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And perhaps, for the women who find their way to them after years of being dismissed and unheard, a small part of the solution.<\/p>\n
Ireland has spent centuries choosing silence over the body, composure over pain, secrecy over understanding.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Sheela-na-Gig, that ancient unashamed figure carved into our church doorways, was buried so thoroughly that most Irish women don\u2019t even know she exists.<\/p>\n
The women in this piece, in their various ways \u2013 some more cave-related than others \u2013 are trying to dig her back up.<\/p>\n
I find I can\u2019t argue with that. Even from a spa, with a champagne cocktail in hand.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When I first heard about Ireland\u2019s growing band of self-styled menstrual mentors \u2013 women who run retreats, charge handsomely for the privilege and invite other women to spend weekends communing spiritually with their uteruses \u2013 my first instinct was not curiosity, it was to reach for something cold and wonder what had become of us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[520],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9118","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hot"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}