Launching today, online platform The Cyclist aims to make expert health advice available to all.
From painful periods as teenagers to complicated fertility journeys as adults, Katherine Douglas, BraveFace founder and group general manager of Douglas Pharmaceuticals and Jess Quinn, media personality and diversity advocate, found solace in each other’s
The pair first linked up when Jess was asked to front a campaign for Brave Face, Katherine’s venture which offers natural remedies for sleep, worry and stress.
In a tragic turn of events, Jess sadly miscarried her first pregnancy and as a result her Brave Face content was delayed. What Jess didn’t know at the time was that sadly Katherine was in the same boat.
Escaping to her Waiheke Island bach for a moment to heal, the idea sparked in Katherine’s mind to align with Jess on a reproductive health platform, having battled with endometriosis for years herself.
“I sent her an Instagram DM, not knowing whether she’d think it was weird I was reaching out,” Katherine says.
“She’s got such amazing values with her platform and what she stands for, and I’d always really admired her. I’d always thought there was a better way to work with her than just [Brave Face] content creation.”
“It was a really interesting time,” Jess recalls, adding she was at a crossroads with her work as an influencer in the lead-up to Katherine reaching out. “At that point I’d been working in social for six years, and I was ready for something more.”
Jess says she’d had an overwhelming response on Instagram after sharing details of her own endometriosis journey previously and was floored by the number of responses from her community to say they were facing a similar diagnosis.
So, when Katherine’s message landed in Jess’s inbox, she knew it was too good an opportunity to pass up.
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Advertise with NZME.“It aligned so well with what I was hoping to do, but I knew I didn’t have all the knowledge to bring it to life,” Jess adds.
That all-important Instagram DM was sent two and a half years ago, and in the time since both Katherine and Jess have welcomed babies – Katherine has a son, Cooper, and Jess a daughter, Marla. Katherine is patiently awaiting the arrival of her second son in August.
Together, they co-founded The Cyclist, an inclusive online platform designed to support people navigating their reproductive health, fostering a sense of community and connection while providing expert-led resources and practitioner directories.
“It’s complicated owning a female body. We want to help you demystify that and provide clarity to help you own your cycle,” Katherine says.
Launching today, The Cyclist is a platform for anyone in the process of being diagnosed with PCOS. Instead of trawling the internet for advice on how best to manage symptoms or medical practitioners said to specialise in this field, The Cyclist will offer everything in one place.
Reproductive health conditions, including endometriosis, are predicted to impact more than 190,000 people in Aotearoa, while polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is said to affect one in 10. Many women struggle to get a confirmed diagnosis of each condition, which means the figures are predicted to be much higher.
For too long, the unique needs of female bodies have been largely under-represented, overlooked or misunderstood by pockets of the medical community.
Only in recent years has the rhetoric surrounding women’s health begun to shift, spurred on by public demand and emerging health innovations. But there’s still work to be done.
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Advertise with NZME.While The Cyclist is not diagnostic, the modus operandi is to make expert advice from leaders in their field accessible to people from all walks of life.
“What our platform aims to do is curate expert information and journey with our community to help them better understand their cycle, so they can advocate for themselves. We’re not here to tell people which information is right for them,” Katherine says.
“It’s about putting the information out there for people to pick up, if they choose, and know that it’s from a credible source. Knowledge is power. The more informed you can be about your body, the better decisions you can make for yourself.”
“Everyone’s path is going to be different. Acupuncture and naturopathy might work for someone, whereas going to a gynaecologist or GP might work for someone else. We want to provide a silver platter of all the options of what can help or what can lead you to a diagnosis, if necessary,” Jess adds.
“It can be really empowering if you work with your cycle, as opposed to working against it.”
Expert-led content will be governed by The Cyclist’s advisory board, which includes naturopath and medical herbalist Loula George, registered naturopath and medical herbalist Rebekah Paddy, clinical psychologist Dr Bex Parkes, dietitian Sara Widdowson, pelvic health physiotherapist Caitlin Fris and gynaecologist Dr Fiona Connell.
“Katherine and I aren’t coming at it like we know everything. We’ve been privileged to be able to afford to see a lot of these experts and that’s something we want everyone to have access to,” Jess says. “We want to be honest about our own journeys and see what else we can also learn along the way.”
Adopting a neutral stance is important to the duo, especially Katherine who has generational roots in pharmaceuticals.
“Western medicine is more focused on covering up symptoms, whereas the East is about getting to the root cause of the problem,” Katherine says. “I think that’s part of the challenge with women’s health and how you become a number in the system.”
Careful not to polarise options, Jess says The Cyclist will include curated information from both sides of the fence – expert opinions posited from naturopaths and gynaecologists – with no place for scaremongering.
“There’s a lot of fear around the pill at the moment, whereas the gynaecologists I’ve talked to say it can be empowering and helpful. We want to keep neutral,” Jess says.
Anyone who has experienced endometriosis will know that falling pregnant can have its challenges, and both Katherine and Jess recruited the help of Mother-Well, a holistic healthcare service which offers osteopathy, acupuncture, naturopathy and more, on their respective fertility journeys.
Fertility is a sensitive subject, and one which the pair say The Cyclist will handle with care.
“While infertility won’t be our key focus, it is an element of understanding your cycle and we would never tell people what to do or not do on their fertility journey,” Katherine says.
“Instead, much of our content will focus on telling real stories and for people to be able to see themselves in someone else’s journey. Hearing things first-hand from others always feels more comforting than being told what to do. It’s great for community building,” Jess adds.
“We want to open up conversations about topics such as this, so people feel less alone,” Katherine says.
Such conversations aim to include members of all communities, including those that identify as non-binary. Katherine and Jess want people to know that everyone is welcome here.
“Inclusion is something that’s really important to Kat and me, and something I’ve always focused on in my content personally,” says Jess.
“We want to hear from people from a variety of different cultural backgrounds and gender identities for a mix of voices to ensure everyone feels seen and heard.”
One of the models at The Cyclist’s campaign shoot is non-binary and offered the pair valuable advice when it came to terminology.
“They said they were happy for the word female to be used because while they don’t identify as a woman, they still have female reproductive organs and a cycle,” Katherine says. “We’ve had a lot of discussions with people to learn and better understand.”
Alongside expert-led articles commissioned from members of the advisory board and downloadable health guides, The Cyclist will host a practitioner directory that will include a list of approved practitioners and specialists as vetted by the team, with this number expected to grow over time.
“It’s a starting point for people to find what’s right for them,” Jess says, adding the search function will enable users to search by profession and location to find a practitioner to suit their needs.
The Cyclist Podcast will be launching the same week as the platform, with episodes dropping weekly.
The first will include a deep dive into Katherine and Jess’ own journeys with endometriosis, with future guests including a mix of expert-led discussions and real-life stories from Cecilia Robinson, Steph Claire Smith and more.
The pair agree there’s a fine line as to how much content circulates on the platform, adding one of the biggest challenges they foresee with The Cyclist is adding to the noise.
“We want to offer a broad range of information because different things suit different people, but we want to do that without confusing anyone. Our goal is to provide the information, and it’s up to the person to do what they will with that. We hope to both empower and educate,” Jess says.
The pipe dream is to one day partner with a cycle-tracking app like Flo or Oura Health, the brand behind the smart ring, but for now, Katherine and Jess are keeping their focus tight.
Community events are also a goal, expanding into live podcasts, cycle-synced exercise classes or panel discussions where guests can come and hear from medical professionals who they may not be able to secure an appointment with due to barriers like cost or long waitlists.
Eventually, they’d love to take The Cyclist on the road, with a mobile classroom of sorts to educate the next generation about their bodies and their cycles – not just during their reproductive years, but all the way through to menopause, too.
“We love the idea of inviting engaged members of our community to connect and have these conversations in person. We want to hear what they would like us to develop, experts they want to hear from or new topics they want us to cover,” Jess says.
“As people’s bodies change, we’ll be evolving with them.”
For more, visit Wearethecyclist.com
Photography / Babiche Martens. Hair and makeup / Fiona Wright.
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