Standard yoga teacher training programs often overlook crucial information about teaching women…

A few years into my teaching career, a woman approached me after class. I was still in my early twenties and she was in her late forties and had been coming regularly for months. Quietly, she asked if yoga could help with what she was experiencing — hot flushes, anxiety, sleepless nights. She was in perimenopause and struggling.

I wanted to help. But both my teacher training and life experience where just not enough to offer any real advice in terms of how Yoga could help.

I’d learned anatomy in general terms. I’d learned how to sequence a class and cue a sun salutation. But nobody had taught me how the female body changes across a lifetime — or how to adapt my teaching to support women through those changes. In fact looking back I just had no idea what was even going in my own body as woman or all the changes it would face.

That moment changed how I thought about yoga teacher training. And it’s why women’s health is now at the heart of how I train teachers.

The gap in most yoga teacher trainings

Here’s an uncomfortable truth: most yoga teacher trainings treat the body as if it’s neutral. As if everyone in the room has the same anatomy, the same hormonal landscape, the same needs.

They don’t.

The majority of yoga students are women. Yet most teacher trainings cover women’s health as an afterthought, if at all. The truth is the way in which we cue and direct some yoga asana need to be considered differently due to anatomical and hormonal differences between male and female bodies. And historically it is the female anatomy that gets ignored or brushed under carpet.

This means thousands of yoga teachers graduate every year without understanding:

• How the menstrual cycle affects energy, mood, and hormonal shifts which actually effect the physical body in yoga asana.
• Why certain poses and breathing techniques may not be appropriate during pregnancy — and what to offer instead
• How to support a woman in her postnatal year, when her body is recovering and her pelvic floor may be vulnerable
• What happens during perimenopause and menopause, and how yoga can genuinely help with symptoms like anxiety, insomnia, joint pain, and hot flushes

This isn’t specialist knowledge that only some teachers need. If you’re teaching yoga to real people, and there are women in your classes you need to understand this.

Why this matters for every yoga teacher

You might be thinking: I don’t want to specialise in women’s health. I just want to teach general classes.

That’s completely valid. But here’s the thing — you don’t need to specialise in women’s health to need this knowledge. You need it precisely because you’re teaching general classes.

Think about who comes to a typical yoga class. It is mainly full of women! Women in their twenties dealing with painful periods. Women trying to conceive. Pregnant women who haven’t told anyone yet. New mothers running on no sleep. Women in their forties noticing their bodies changing in ways they don’t understand. Women in their fifties and beyond navigating menopause.

Without understanding what these women are experiencing, you might:

• Encourage a strong core-focused practice for someone with diastasis recti who needs the opposite
• Teach vigorous pranayama to someone whose nervous system is already in overdrive from perimenopausal anxiety
• Offer inversions to someone in the first trimester who hasn’t yet shared her news
• Push someone to “breathe through it” when their pelvic floor is telling them to stop

With this knowledge, you can adapt intelligently. You can read the room. You can offer modifications that actually make sense. You can hold space for what your students are going through, even when they don’t tell you directly.

This is what makes the difference between a qualified teacher and a confident, responsive one.

How I cover Women’s Health on my course

When I talk about including women’s health in yoga teacher training, I don’t mean a single weekend workshop bolted on at the end. I mean weaving this understanding throughout the training so it becomes part of how you think about teaching.

On my course, this includes:

The menstrual cycle Understanding the four phases and how they affect energy, mood, and practice. Learning which practices support each phase — and which might deplete rather than nourish. Knowing how to offer options without making assumptions about who in the room is menstruating.

Pregnancy Trimester by trimester changes. What’s safe and what isn’t — and why. How to adapt poses, breathing, and relaxation. The difference between teaching a pregnant woman and teaching a pregnancy yoga class.

Postnatal recovery The fourth trimester and why it matters. Pelvic floor awareness — not just “do your kegels” but genuine understanding of what supports recovery. How to welcome new mothers back to class safely. The emotional and physical reality of the postnatal year.

Perimenopause and menopause What’s actually happening hormonally and why it creates such varied symptoms. Practices that help with anxiety, sleep, joint pain, hot flushes. The difference between what a perimenopausal woman needs and what she might have practised ten years ago. How to talk about this stage of life without awkwardness or avoidance.

This isn’t about becoming a women’s health yoga therapist. It’s about having the foundation to teach real women in real bodies, whatever stage of life they’re in.

Why this is personal to me

I came to yoga through dance. For years, I pushed my body hard without much thought or understanding for its rhythms or needs. When I started teaching, I taught the way I’d been taught — strong, dynamic, one-size-fits-all.

It was my own experience as a woman that changed my perspective. Noticing how my practice needed to shift across my cycle. Navigating pregnancy and the postnatal period. Watching friends and students struggle with symptoms that yoga could help — if only their teachers knew how.

I trained further. I studied with teachers who specialised in women’s health. And I realised this couldn’t stay separate from how I trained new teachers. It had to be part of the foundation.

Now, when my graduates go out to teach, they’re prepared for the students who will actually walk into their classes. They don’t panic when someone tells them they’re pregnant. They don’t feel lost when a woman asks about menopause. They have the knowledge and the confidence to adapt.

Is this training right for you?

You don’t need to want to specialise in women’s health to benefit from this approach. But if any of the following resonate, you might be a good fit for how I train teachers:

• You want to feel genuinely prepared, not just certified
• You believe yoga should be accessible to women at every stage of life
• You’re drawn to teaching that’s responsive and adaptive rather than one-size-fits-all
• You want to be part of a training that reflects the reality of who actually practises yoga

For my next BWY Level 4 teacher training in London and online see the upcoming dates HERE. It’s 300 hours over 14 months, with a mix of in-person weekends in London and online learning — designed for people with jobs and lives.

If you’d like to know more, you can read the full details HERE or get in touch to chat.

The kind of teacher you could become

I’ve watched graduates from my training go on to build yoga businesses that genuinely serve their communities. They teach in studios, in community halls, in workplaces. They run classes specifically for women. They support pregnant students and new mothers. They’re the teachers women trust — because they understand.

That understanding didn’t come from a weekend add-on or a separate CPD course after qualifying. It came from training that treated women’s health as essential from the start.

If that resonates with you, I’d love to hear from you.

Hana Saotome has been teaching yoga for over 17 years and is a BWY Diploma Course Tutor. Her teacher training in London integrates women’s health throughout the curriculum. Find out more at https://hanasaotome.com/yoga-teacher-training