I Ask Clients about Periods in our First Session
My motivations behind this.
2 min read
By Caroline Hutchins, 12th August 2026
The first session often involves me asking questions about you to build up a picture of what life has been and is like for you. As part of checking in with your general health, I ask ‘how are your periods?’, if you are a person that menstruates. This is an invitation, that you can accept or decline, for you to share your experiences and relationship with your period.
I ask this question for a number of reasons:
1.
I want to show you that periods, the menstrual cycle and all things related to your health are welcome here. With a lot of stigma, embarrassment and even shame around our cycles, it can feel hard to bring up.
I want you to know that this is a safe place to share your experiences, thoughts and feelings. No judgement, no squeamishness, just curiosity and openness.
2.
Often, our experiences of the menstrual cycle, like other physical health experiences, impacts our mental health. It affects our relationship with our periods and any symptoms within them, our feelings about ourselves and our bodies across the cycle, as well as our relationships with others.
The shifts and changes across the cycle affect our energy levels, mood, libido, confidence, anxiety and fear levels, as well as our ability to respond to these.
Whether we’re aware of it or not, the menstrual cycle will influence our lives and can say a lot about what’s happening internally. (I mean this both physically and psychologically.) That’s useful information for us to use, if you’re open to it.
3.
You may be experiencing problems with your period or menstrual cycle. Heavy or painful bleeding, or challenges like Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD), endometriosis or PMOS. Or you may be coming towards the end of your cycling and experiencing perimenopause or navigating life after menopause.
These will all influence your experiences of life and can give me useful context for what could be a focus, or simply something for me to keep in mind in the background of our focus.
This also means that we can consider your needs carefully alongside our work to ensure that we’re working with your body and its needs.
4.
You may not be menstruating. You may be on contraceptives that stop natural menstruation, or have gone through the menopause (natural, chemical or surgical). That can create a different landscape for your experiences and your relationship with your body.
These may also factor into your mental health and whether you want to bring menstrual cycle awareness into the space.
After this exploration, I will then share the opportunity to consider using menstrual cycle awareness within therapy. It’s not an expectation for working with me, but a tool that I offer for anyone that I feel it could be useful for.
You can say no, yes, or you can take time to think about it. The choice is entirely yours.
