Lucy Jade, a registered women’s health nutritionist with over seven years’ experience, has built her career around a simple but powerful aim: helping women feel better in their bodies. Supporting female health across the lifespan, from menstrual cycles to menopause, her work combines evidence-based nutrition with practical lifestyle strategies. Alongside running her clinic, she collaborates with organisations to improve workplace wellbeing and mentors aspiring practitioners through her platform, Nutrition Graduates.

But her path into women’s health wasn’t planned. It was personal.

“I actually got into women's health after years of issues with my own menstrual cycle and a lot of gut and digestive issues,” she explains. Like many women, she found herself stuck in a cycle of appointments without answers: “I'd been back and forth from doctor to doctor like so much.” At one point, she recalls being “so malnourished and barely having a period, but being in so much pain as well.”

With limited medical support, she turned to research herself. “The only thing I could do… was to look at my diet,” she says, and after “months and months of research” she began to feel “marginally better.” That experience ultimately led her to leave a career in accounting and retrain in nutrition, driven by a sense that something was missing in how women’s health was being approached.

A gap in women’s healthcare

After graduating, Lucy initially worked in weight management, but quickly recognised a pattern in the clients she was seeing. There was a clear lack of support for women dealing with hormonal conditions. “I started to notice the lack of support for women in certain areas,” she says, particularly with PCOS, menopause, and menstrual irregularities.

It was this gap that shaped her specialism. “One thing I did notice was the link between women's menstrual cycles and their health in general,” she explains, prompting her to focus her work on helping women better understand their bodies across different life stages.

Her perspective deepened further following her own diagnosis of endometriosis, something that took a decade to confirm. “It was 10 years that it took me to get diagnosed,” she says. That experience not only shaped her clinical work but also highlighted systemic issues in healthcare.

“For years I thought it was all in my head”

Lucy’s experience of seeking a diagnosis reflects what many women encounter: dismissal and disbelief. She describes being told to lose weight, only to return with the same symptoms, and later being informed after surgery that “there's nothing wrong with you… the pain that you're believing you're feeling, it's in your head.”

The psychological impact of this was profound. “For years I thought it was literally all in my head… I would literally walk around going, no, this is not real.”

This experience, she explains, speaks to broader issues of medical misogyny and the barriers women face when seeking care for reproductive health conditions. It also fuels her commitment to improving understanding and challenging misinformation, particularly around conditions like endometriosis, where she notes that “the most frustrating thing… is the amount of misinformation that is online.”

The menstrual cycle as a “vital sign”

A central theme in Lucy’s work is reframing how we think about the menstrual cycle. “I absolutely see the menstrual cycle as one of the vital signs for our health,” she says, describing it as “essentially like a monthly report card.”

This perspective is grounded in the relationship between nutrition and hormonal health. Adequate energy intake is essential for ovulation and regular cycles, while restrictive dieting or nutrient deficiencies can disrupt these processes. “If the body doesn't feel safe or feel fuelled, it will essentially just turn off that function,” she explains.

Rather than focusing on restrictive approaches, Lucy advocates for a balanced, Mediterranean-style diet, rich in fruits, vegetables, fibre, healthy fats and protein. “You have to nail the basics before you start adding in anything complicated,” she says, emphasising that sustainable health starts with consistency, not extremes.

The reality behind supplements

The conversation also turned to the booming supplement industry, particularly within women’s health. While Lucy acknowledges that supplements such as vitamin D, iron, folic acid, or inositol for PCOS can be beneficial in specific cases, she is cautious about the way they are marketed.

“There’s so many companies and influencers plugging new supplements,” she says, often promoting products “that we don't really have that much evidence on.”

She highlights menopause as a key area where women are being targeted: “They're all doing different things and charging women an absolute fortune.” For Lucy, the issue isn’t supplements themselves, but the lack of nuance and evidence behind many products. “Maybe we're taking them because social media posts have talked us into it,” she adds, stressing the importance of individual need and professional guidance.

Gut health and the bigger picture

Another emerging area of interest is the relationship between the gut microbiome and women’s health. Research suggests that gut bacteria may influence hormonal balance, metabolic health, and gastrointestinal symptoms across the menstrual cycle.

Lucy describes this as “a really exciting area of research,” noting that many women experience digestive changes throughout their cycle, from slowed gut motility around ovulation to the commonly joked-about but very real “period poops.”

While research is still developing, her advice remains grounded in fundamentals: “Variety in the diet… and that focus on the fibre can really sort of help with the gut bugs and make sure that the gut's nice and happy.”

Weight loss drugs and long-term health

We also explored the increasing use of GLP-1 weight loss medications. While Lucy acknowledges their effectiveness for managing conditions like diabetes and obesity, she raises concerns about their growing use without proper supervision.

“We need to think beyond just weight loss when women are taking these,” she explains. Rapid weight loss, particularly without adequate nutrition, can impact muscle mass, bone density, and menstrual health. “This can really impact… our menstrual cycles,” she says, highlighting the importance of structured nutritional support and professional guidance.

Social media and misinformation

Finally, Lucy reflects on the role of social media in shaping health behaviours. While platforms have made information more accessible, they have also amplified misinformation. “Anybody can post about health and nutrition,” she says, noting that “only 2% of nutrition information online [is] actually being evidence based.”

Content such as restrictive dieting trends or “what I eat in a day” videos can distort perceptions of health and reinforce unrealistic body ideals. “The algorithms can repeatedly expose… vulnerable young women to restrictive eating content,” she explains.

Her advice is to be critical and intentional: seek evidence-based guidance and curate your feed to reflect healthier, more realistic perspectives.

“Your body is not something to fight against”

At its core, Lucy’s message is one of balance, awareness, and self-trust. “Make sure you're eating enough, fuel your body consistently,” she says.

And perhaps most importantly: “Your menstrual cycle is information, it's not something to fight against.”

In a space often dominated by quick fixes and conflicting advice, Lucy’s approach offers something different, one rooted in evidence, lived experience, and a commitment to helping women truly understand their bodies.

Thank you so much Lucy for sharing your experience, time and expertise with us!

Where to find Lucy Jade:

Instagram

www.thefemalecycle.co.uk